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TWO MONTHS ABROAD: ' 



OR, A TRIP TO 



ENGLAND, FRANCE, BADEN, PRUSSIA, AND BELGIUM. 



IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER, 1843. 



BY A EAIL-ROAD DIRECTOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



BOSTON: 

REDDING & CO., 8 STATE STREET. 
1844. 



^c^ 



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y 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the Year Eighteen Hundred and Forty-Three, 

By E. H. DERBY, 

In the Clerk's Office of th,e District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



boston: 

sam-oel n. dickinson, printbb> 
washington street. 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



LETTER I. 

A Glance at Europe. 

J. T. B., Esq. 

My Dear Sir — Since our last interview 
in State street, in the brief space of sixty- 
two days, I have twice crossed the Atlantic j 
devoted a week to London and its environs, 
another to Paris and Versailles ; given the 
principal part of a day to each of the great 
cities of Liverpool, Birmingham, Brighton, 
Dieppe, Rouen, Nancy, Strasburg, Heidel- 
berg, Baden-Baden, Frankfort, Cologne, Aix- 
la-Chapelle, Verviers, Liege, Malines, Ant- 
werp, Oxford, Derby, York, Leeds, and 
Manchester ; examined the Ckemins de fer 
of France, Germany, and Belgium ; the rail- 
ways of England, with the stations and 
depots of each country ; travelled in cars 
of the first, second, third, and fourth classes, 
in post-chaises, fiacres, cabriolets, and om- 
nibuses, in the various compartments of dil- 
igences, on the top of English post-coaches ; 
lodged in magnificent hotels, with princes 
and nobles, in commercial houses with 
' travellers ' and dissenters ; sailed down the 
Rhine, from Mayence, by Coblentz," to Co- 
logne, amid towering mountains and vine- 
clad hills, crowned by the ruins of ancient 
castles and feudal halls ; paused to admire 
the palaces and cathedrals that have ex- 
hausted the wealth of nations, the cloistered 
abbey and crumbling monastery ; sailed up 
and down that great artery of commerce, the 
Thames ; traversed the classic halls and 



green lawns of Oxford ; attended an anti- 
corn-law meeting in Oxfordshire, and seen 
lords and squires put down by the eloquence 
and talent of self-made men ; explored the 
courts of Westminster, the galleries and mu- 
seums of Paris, Versailles, and Antwerp; 
and conversed with all classes, from the 
peasant and mechanic to the most distin- 
guished and scientific ; and now, after effect- 
ing an important negotiation, am enabled, 
by the power of steam, to resume my avoca- 
tions at home, almost without having been 
missed. A few years since, sixty days 
would scarcely have sufficed for one pas- 
sage across the ocean, attended with dis- 
comforts and privations. But now, one has 
barely time to eat a few pleasant dinners, to 
form a few pleasant acquaintances, to learn 
a few sea phrases, take a few walks on deck, 
and see a few of the changeful featured of 
old ocean, before the steam-ship enters her 
port, and the curtain of the old world rises ; 
and such is the precision of the movement, 
that, on our return, the very day is calcu- 
lated, and the wife sets her table for our re- 
ception. 

To one reared in a growing country like 
ours, with few memorials of the past, amid 
enterprise and improvement, and constant 
predictions of the future, and in the midst of 
the strife and turmoil of incessant compe- 
tition, it is refreshing to enjoy, for a brief 
space, however rapid be our movement, the 
comparative calm and repose of the old 
world ; to gaze at the varying costumes and 
cultivation of each region, at the antique 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



implements of agriculture, the primitive car- 
riages and dwellings ; and pleasant again is 
it to return to our own city, as I have done, 
and be able to say, as I am, that I have seen 
no other spot, in a wide circuit, which sur- 
passes it, either in education, general com- 
fort, enterprise, sagacity, rapid growth, or 
prospects of future expansion. 

In the series of letters I inclose, written 
currente calamo, and under impressions 
produced by new scenes and associations, 
I have pictured the incidents of my tour, and 
the sut^gestions to which they have given 
birth. And although, in the haste of the 
"voyage, I may have occasionally made my- 
8elf amenable to criticism, I have, at least, 
given you an honest and fearless expression 
of my views, whether they make for me or 
against me, 

I remain very sincerely yours, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Boston, October 4, 1843. 



LETTER II. 

The Voyage from Boston to Halifax. 

We pass Cunard's wharf on Tuesday af- 
ternoon, at nine minutes past two o'clock, 
with fifty-four passengers, for Halifax and 
England. After a pleasant run down the har- 
bor, against a flood tide, we discharge our 
pilot at three o'clock, at the Light, and bid 
adieu to Boston. 

The sea is like a summer lake — scarcely 
a ripple on the water ; our captain and offi- 
cers courteous, attentive, and obliging, our 
fare excellent, and every thing agreeable. 
The shore rapidly recedes, and ere we leave 
the dinner table, at five o'clock, we have lost 
sight of land, and see it no more until we 
make Shelburne Lights, on the coast of 
Nova Scotia, arriving here this morning, in a 
run of forty-four hours from Boston. 

We have with us six ladies ; and, to give 
you an idea of the state of the sea and 
weather, not one of them has been seasick. 
Sitting down to our sumptuous fare, with 
fresh salmon, fresh ducks, turkeys, lamb, 



pastry, and fruit, we might almost imagine 
that the dining-hall of the Tremont, or rather 
of our friend Warriner, was quietly floating 
down the Connecticut with the seated guests. 
Perhaps, however, there is this difference : 
the air is cool and invigorating, reminding 
you of Nahant in a summer evening. 

The noble round of beef which graces our 
table, does great credit to my clients. Potter 
and Leland, of Quincy Market, and the cheese 
is the best of Cheshire and Stilton. 

In two particulars I have been disappoint- 
ed. I had anticipated an unpleasant jar 
from the engine, which might disturb my 
sleep, and supposed the cinders and coal- 
dust might be annoying 3 but we have 
neither. I write and sleep as easily as if 
ashore. In both these particulars, and in 
steadiness of motion, these deep sea steam- 
ers far surpass our coasting steam-boats. 

I have passed a very pleasant hour in ex- 
amining the engines and boilers of our float- 
ing home, under the guidance of Mr. Babbit, 
one of our most able and successful mechan- 
ics, who is our fellow-passenger. The me- 
chanism is very perfect, and the arrange- 
ments admirable. The coal, which lines the 
sides of the ship, descends, by its own grav- 
ity, to trap-doors near the mouth of the fur- 
naces. Glass tubes, containing a water- 
gauge, stand before the engineer, indicating 
the height of the water in the boilers. The 
steam indicators appear both above and be- 
low the deck, showing the height of the 
steam, which is usually about seven pounds 
to the inch. A brass instrument gives the 
number of pounds of salt in each gallon in 
the boilers, and when it becomes too dense, 
the boiler is insulated and cleaned. 

The ship carries a surgeon, a very accom- 
plifihed and gentlemanly man, and is pro- 
vided with a cow, and an ice-house. 

Our passengers are gathered from all sec- 
tions of the country — from Boston, New 
York, New Orleans, Canada, the West In- 
dies, and other places, but get on very har- 
moniously together. 

And now ' for merry England.' Our ste- 
vedores have just added eight hundred sacks 
to our stock of coal. We have written to our 
wives, strolled through the streets of Halifax— 



THE SEA. 



which reminds me a little of our neighboring 
city of Portland, excepting only the sprink- 
ling of red coats — and now are summoned 
to resume our voyage. 

Yours, very sincerely, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Halifax. August 3, 1843. 

P. S. I hare looked in vain for the reefs 
and breakers vrhich are so vividly, fairly, 
and disinterestedly portrayed in the New 
York Herald, as endangering this route. 



LETTER HI. 

Voyage from Halifax to Liverpool. 

In my letter of August 3d, from Halifax, I 
announced my arrival at that place, and my 
pleasant sojourn for a few hours on shore, 
during which I partook of a glass of wine at 

the hospitable mansion of our friend C , 

the bold spirit who established the steam 
line from Boston to Liverpool, and who has 
derived from it, as he deserved, some sub- 
stantial benefits ; he has, however, in com- 
mon with other Provincial houses, suflered 
from the depression of ships and timber in 
the British markets. 

At three p. M. we cast off from the Cunard 
wharf, and, with a clear sky and calm sea, 
run down the noble harbor of Halifax, and 
take a parting view of the strong fortresses 
which England has placed there to curb her 
adventurous neighbors. ' In peace prepare 
for war,' is the motto of England, and nu- 
merous artificers are busily engaged in con- 
structing new lines of defence — adapting 
the works to resist the new engines of mod- 
ern warfare. At Halifax we receive an ac- 
cession to our numbers, including several 
very agreeable persons, who, as we leave the 
harbor, meet us at dinner. The sea contin- 
ues smooth, the air refreshing, and I sleep 
soundly through the night. 

Friday, August 4. A delightful morning, 
not a ripple upon the ocean, the steamer 
making nine knots, and passing Cape Breton. 
In the afternoon a light southerly breeze, and 
we set jib and foresail. 



Saturday, August 5. Rise from a refresh- 
ing sleep, take my morning walk on deck, 
a dead calm upon the sea. At daybreak 
run through a fleet of fishermen on a bank 
off Newfoundland, taking them quite by sur- 
prise, and exciting no little alarm. During 
the day count six sail, all at least five milea 
distant; and see a whale spouting. At f6ur 
and a half p. m. make Cape Race, distinctly 
visible until seven and a half p. m., and dis- 
tinguish several vessels between us and the 
land. The thermometer suddenly falls 
twelve degrees, and we discover two small 
icebergs ; we commiserate the poor people 
of Newfoundland, subject, as they are, to 
such cheerless visitors in midsummer. Our 
speed nine to ten knots per hour. 

Sunday, August 6. Crossing the Banks of 
Newfoundland. As we approach the easter- 
ly verge of the Banks, a swell rolls in from 
the eastward, and the motion of the steamer 
increases. The rims are applied to the 
tables. At ten a. m. the bell rings for prayers, 
and our worthy captain reads the Church 
Service, in an audible tone, to the passen- 
gers and crew. 

Monday, August 7. Rise from slumbers 
occasionally broken by a heavy swell from 
the northward, and look out upon a sea in 
constant motion, but unruffled by a breeze. 
The steamer rolls, lifting her wheels alter- 
nately from the sea, and her speed dimin- 
ishes to eight and a half knots per hour, but 
my spirits and appetite do not flag. A mod- 
erate breeze comes in from the south, smooth- 
ing the sea, filling all our sails, and increas- 
ing our speed to eleven knots per hour. The 
day continues fiffe, and the sun sinks majes- 
tically into the ocean. The time is passed 
in reading, conversation, and exercise, and 
I walk the deck until midnight. 

Tuesday, August 8. A delightful morning ; 
a fresh breeze from the west expands our 
wings, and carries our speed to eleven knots. 
At twelve, M., the captain, as usual, posts his 
daily card with the latitude, longitude, and 
distance, and we find we have, in our first 
week, reached longitude 38 34, latitude 49 
12. No ships are visible, but several por- 
poises accompany us in our rapid flight 
across the deep. 

Wednesday, August 9. Our speed continues, 



6 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



^.Tid by noon we have run 245 miles in tlie last 
twenty-three and a half hours, which is the 
length of our day, as we run so rapidly east- 
ward. Amuse myself with reading the ' At- 
' tach6,' by Judge Haliburton, which does not 
sustain his reputation. His rude assault on the 
American Minister is not enlivened by a 
sprinkling of wit, and his anecdotes argue 
little for the virtue of English women. His 
object seems to be, to fawn upon England, 
t§ court the tories by disparaging the United 
States, to bring the Provincials into notice, 
and to intimate that a few ofHces, ' properly ' 
distributed, would insure their loyalty — an 
object which may have some connexion 
with his recent visit to England. 

Beside me at the table sits a most intelli- 
gent and agreeable merchant of Jamaica, who, 
after thirty years' residence abroad, returns to 
educate his children, and enjoy his fortune at 
home ; full of anecdotes, liberal in his views, 
familiar with business and sound principles, 
— a noble specimen of the British merchant, 
polished by intercourse with the world. Op- 
posite are two agreeable ladies, and a very 
pleasant Irish gentleman, from St. Johns. 
On my left, an intelligent manufacturer of 
the Bay State, a good specimen of her sons. 
We u3U8,lly sit in agreeable conversation for 
an hour after meals. 

Thursday, August 10. For the last twen- 
ty-four hours vapory clouds overhang us, 
rising with a fresh southerly breeze j our 
speed twelve knots, giving us 270 miles dur- 
ing the day. We receive every attention from 
the steward and waiters, who furnish the 
choicest wines, and every delicacy we may 
require, at a moment's notice. Captain Lett 
is extremely courteous, and appears a most 
careful and admirable seaman. We are fly- 
ing with the speed of a bird across the sea ; 
scarcely one of our company is seasick, and 
we are predicting the hour on Saturday 
which Avill present to us the coast of Ireland. 

Friday, August 11. The wind freshens to 
a gale from the southwest, before which we 
fly, amid blue waves capped with foam, 
sprinkled over the surface of the sea, making 
267 miles. Before night a calm succeeds 
the gale. 

Saturday, August 12, A charming morn 



and smooth sea, with a light air from the 
south. Two ships appear in the distance — 
a most grateful sight to us, lone voyagera 
as we have been, for the last five days, 
across the waste of waters ; numerous por- 
poises sport around us. At two p. m. we make 
the western shores of Ireland, having made 
the run in six days and eighteen hours from 
Cape Race. At five p. m. speak the Margaret 
steamer, for Halifax, and in the evening pass 
numerous fishing-boats, and the lights of 
Cape Clear, Cork, and Kinsale. 

Sunday, August 13. Before breakfast pass 
the Tuskar light, a solitary tower in mid- 
channel ; suddenly a dense fog sets in, and 
veils the coast from our view. At two p. m. 
the fog lifts ; we make Holyhead, and catch 
a glimpse of the mountain pastures of Wales. 
At four p. M. we pass the Skerries light ; at 
five p. M. Pont Linas, the pilot station, and a 
steam-tug in quest of vessels. No pilot ap- 
pearing, we run to the light below the Mer- 
sey, take a pilot between the two light ships, 
and, to receive him, check our engine for the 
first time since we left Halifax, — a fact more 
eloquent than words, in praise of Napier, the 
Scotch engineer. At nine p. m. we are in the 
Mersey ; and Liverpool, the mart of Ameri- 
can commerce, with its miles of gas lamps, 
sparkles in the distance. As we advance, 
we announce our arrival by rockets and can- 
non, threading our way through a fleet of 
ships in motion. A miniature steamer comes 
off for the mails, which, with the worthy offi- 
cer in charge — a midshipman under Nelson, 
and still a lieutenant — are slid down a 
plank ; and between ten and eleven p. m. we 
are safe at the entrance of one of the noble 
docks of Liverpool, in twelve days and eight 
hours from Boston ; and I remain. 
Yours ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Liverpool, August 14, 1843. 



LETTER IV. 

Liverpool — Birmingham — English Rail-ways 
— Rural Scenery — A Trip to London. 

We rise at an early hour on Monday, Au- 
gust 14, to touch the shores of England ; to 



LIVERPOOL AND BIRMINGHAM. 



greet, for the first time, a land associated 
with our earliest studies, and hallowed by 
the ashes of our fathers. The Caledonia 
floats in a magnificent dock, amid ships and 
steamers of the largest class ; an ofiicer of 
the customs, in a blue coat, walks the dock, 
and a fleecy drapery of clouds veils the sky 
from our view. A wall rises between us and 
the Mersey, while a series of docks, each 
containing many acres, bristling with masts, 
and encircled by paved wharves, extend 
for nearly four miles, between the Mersey 
and the city. The walls are solid stone, and 
there are locks for outlets. We land and 
examine the commercial navy, among which 
the ships of our own country are conspicuous. 
An immense wagon stops beside the steam- 
er, on which all our trunks are piled, and 
drawn to the depot of the customs. As my 
room-mate is a bearer of despatches, we are 
treated with great deference, and dismissed 
by the olHcer, after a hasty glance at our 
trunks, and a civil inquiry if we have cigars. 
We take a four-wheeled cab to our lodgings, 
in Colquitt street, and there sit down to a 
beef-steak, which does credit to English 
graziers. 

To a Bostonian, accustomed to a clear sky 
and bright colors, Liverpool, with its dingy 
bricks, and humid atmosphere, has a dull 
aspect ; but its substantial warehouses, well- 
built streets, and public edifices, impress one 
with its importance. The town, as a corpo- 
ration, is the sole owner of the docks, from 
which it derives an annual revenue of 
£200.000, and is now constructing another, 
more spacious, to accommodate the increase 
of shipping, and what is more, it owes little, 
or nothing — a fact worthy of notice by some 
American cities. 

After various calls, and inspecting the de- 
pot of the Liverpool and Manchester rail- 
way, with Mr. Booth, one of the projectors of 
the line, at six p. m. I take the train for 

Birmingham, with Mr. C , my compag- 

non de voyage ; travel by the first class, to 
avoid the night air, and reach the ' Stork,' a 
commercial inn in Birmingham, at eleven 
and a half p. m. Our rate of travelling on the 
Liverpool and Manchester, and Grand Junc- 
tion roads is the same as on the rail-ways 



of Massachusetts, namely, twenty miles per 
hour, stops included. 

Tuesday, August 15. Our inn is situate 
on a public square, and is conducted by a 
young hostess, with several female assist- 
ants. I shall not soon forget the courteous 
reception and kind attention which made us 
perfectly at home, or the accomplished man- 
ners, self-possession, and aptitude for busi- 
ness of the ladies, conducting, as they do, 
with apparent ease and success, and with 
but one male assistant, 'the boots,' an ex- 
tensive hotel. Under the guidance of a 
friend we take a view of the town, substan- 
tially built of brick and stone. Its staple 
article, hardware, is made in many small 
factories, in the rear of warehouses fronting 
the streets. We pass through a manufac- 
tory; the operatives generally less intelli- 
gent, and less well-clad than our own, and 
many processes conducted by manual labor, 
to which mechanism and water-power are 
applied in New England. The principal 
attraction of Birmingham, to us, is the free 
school — a splendid granite structure, in the 
gothic style, fronting a principal street, and 
recently built at a cost of £50,000. The 
building is apparently 200 feet in front, by 
100 deep, is divided into several lofty apart- 
ments, beautifully finished with English 
oak, and well lighted, one of which is ap- 
propriated to painting, designing, and archi- 
tecture, — branches much neglected in our 
own country. The funds of the institution 
are also applied to the collegiate education 
of the most promising echolars. This estab- 
lishment was founded by Edward the Sixth, 
by the grant of Abbey lands near the village of 
Birmingham, yielding a rent of £20 per year. 
The growth of manufactures has converted 
these lands into building lots, the leases of 
which now yield £10,000 annually, and are 
daily becoming more valuable. An adjacent 
village, with a similar endowment of the 
same date,* diff"erently invested, and less 
prosperous, still receives its original grant of 
£20 a year. 

At one o'clock we take the cars for Lon- 
don, traversing a country highly cultivated, 
and generally productive. What surprises 
me most, is the fact, that for the entire dis= 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



tance of 112 miles, not a single ledge or tract 
of waste land is visible. The country, either 
level or slightly undulating, divided into 
squares, by hedges, much of it in mowing, 
or luxuriant pastures, the cattle and the 
sheep standing fetlock deep in the grass, and 
very fat and gentle. Along the hedges are 
scattering trees, and clumps of wood on the 
eminences ; no solitary farm-houses, but 
here and there a village, and gentlemen's 
eeats, few and far between. The rail-way, 
one of the most prosperous in England, is 
extremely well conducted ; our speed about 
22 miles per hour. The road is constructed 
at a vast outlay, over an easy country ; the 
aim of the engineer, apparently, having been 
to approximate to an air-line and a dead- 
level. To effect this, recourse has been had 
to cuts, embankments, and tunnels, involv- 
ing great expense, and an immense annual 
outlay for repairs, which might have been 
easily avoided by waving the line, increas- 
ing the gradients, and conforming to the sur- 
face of the country. A slight addition to the 
power of the engines would have rendered 
them sufficient. In cars, the English are 
altogether behind us ; they still adhere to 
the coach-pattern, on four wheels, with side 
doors, abandoned by us at least six years 
since. The first-class carriage is handsome- 
ly painted and glazed, and well padded, but 
is low and confined ; the second class has 
no cushions, and has open sides without 
glass ; the third class is entirely open, with- 
out seats, and resembles the short, open 
freight-cars between Worcester and Boston. 
The nobles, and gentry, and merchants 
moving by night, travel in the first class ; 
the middle classes in the second, and often 
in the third class ; and so unreasonable are 
the charges on this line, that many coaches, 
vans, and canal-boats run in opposition. 
There has been a great waste of capital on 
the depots, and, to an American eye, more 
than half the outlay of the line appears in- 
judicious. But such is the wealth of the 
district and commercial importance of the 
route, that any kind of rail-road must be 
successful. 

As we approach London, the landscape 
becomes more varied and picturesque. It is 



the midst of harvest, and the reapers are 
gathering the wheat, which stands well 
ripened, but thin upon the ground. To the 
northward the crops are more luxuriant. 

The suburbs of the mighty city at length 
appear. Scattering houses and tea gardens 
are seen. We pass through a tunnel, and 
alight in a spacious and airy depot, near 
Euston square ; where omnibuses, lower, 
more compact, and better painted than our 
own, await the train undercover; one of 
which conveys us, at a shilling each, to the 
Tavistock Hotel, Covent Garden. 

Yours, very sincerely, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

London, August 16, 1843. 



LETTER V. 

London. 

Immediately after our arrival in London, 
on the evening of August 15, we wait upon 
the American Minister, Mr. Everett, at No. 
48 Grosvenor Place, and deliver the de- 
spatches intrusted to my friend, Mr. C . 

We find Mr. Everett in fine health, in a 
suitable mansion, situate in an agreeable 
part of London, not far from the public offices 
in Whitehall and Downing streets. He 
evinces great interest in all that is passing 
in America, and gives us some valuable 
hints as to the subject of our mission. On 
our return to our lodgings, we enjoy a view 
of Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace. 

Wednesday, August 16. A Avalk of a few 
minutes across Covent Garden, (now a vege- 
table and fruit market, where we see a pro- 
fusion of brocoli, cauliflower, plums, and 
gooseberries as large as plums,) leads us to 
the Strand, for many centuries one of the 
great thoroughfares of London, and still 
thronged by passengers and vehicles of 
every kind, but not in a much greater degree 
than Washington street, or Broadway. We 
pass St. Clement Dane's, St. Paul's, and 
other noted churches, whose exterior is sadly 
defaced by the joint effects of time, moisture, 
and smoke, operating on a stone much softer 



THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 



than our New England granite. Names and 
streets, familiar to us from boyhood, meet 
the eye as we proceed. Paternoster Row, 
Ludgate Hill, Fleet street, Cheapside, are 
passed, and we find ourselves among the 
merchant princes of this mart of commerce; 
wondering that men of almost regal wealth, 
with splendid mansions, and country seats, 
and luxurious furniture, should be content 
to pass their business hours in narrow alleys, 
and dark and contracted offices, rudely fur- 
nished, and crowded with clerks. As we 
pass from merchant to merchant, we get oc- 
casional views of the New Exchange, half 
finished, of the Bank, Monument, and of 
London Bridge. The latter is built of a 
granite wdaich reminds us of Massachusetts. 
Architecture has done and is doing much 
for London, but, in materials, Boston has 
been far more favored by Providence. With 
the solitary exception of London Bridge, 
there is no material there which corrtpares 
with our native granite, freestone, or mar- 
ble. It is for us to determine, whether we 
shall properly avail of these advantages. 
We return to our lodgings at six p. m., to dine. 
Our associates at dinner, an English mer- 
chant, and Scotch professor, both intelligent 
men. The former, recently returned from 
Calcutta, speaks in the warmest terms of 
commendation of the captains of our Boston 
ships, trading to that port. The latter, after 
expressing a strong interest in our country, 
introduces the topic of repudiation, and 
seems delighted with the ground on which 
we place it, namely, that the whole cur- 
rent of public opinion ran counter to it in 
our country; that it was the doctrine preach- 
ed by renegades from Europe, and proclaim- 
ed by reckless men amid the distress and 
alarm attending a commercial revulsion ; list- 
ened to. for a moment, by communities suf- 
fering from frauds and disastrous specula- 
tions ; that no State would sully its fair fame, 
or the honor of the country, by its adoption, 
and with the return of prosperity the indebt- 
ed States would pay. America would not 
become a by-word and reproach through the 
civilized world. Our dinner concludes with 
a toast from the Scotchman, complimentary 
to the States. 



After dinner we repair to the House of 
Commons. About fifty members are present 
when we enter, and the number gradually 
increases. An animated discussion takes 
place, on the subject of admitting the truth 
in evidence^ in proceedings for libel, and the 
discussion is well sustained by the Attorney- 
General FoUet, Messrs. Buller, Macaulay, of 
the Edinburgh Review, and others. The 
members are attentive to the debate, and 
occasionally respond to the speaker with 
'aye, aye,' ' no, no,' or 'hear, hear,' and there 
is no movement or rustling of papers, as in 
our House of Representatives at Washing- 
ton. The style of debate is terse, and to the 
point ; the illustrations in good taste, and 
nothing collateral introduced. There is little 
eloquence, and occasionally a little hesita- 
tion, but the gentlemen who speak appear 
masters of the subject. Their tone is almost 
colloquial, and the utmost courtesy is observed 
towards other members; indeed, there is 
much which might be copied, with advan- 
tage, in both our State and National assem- 
blies. When will our Congress have the 
wisdom to move into a hall built with some 
regard to acoustics, to discard its desks, and 
to confine its members to their subject ? 

Thursday, August 17. At the suggestion 
of a friend, remove to Morley's hotel, at Char- 
ing Cross, Tavistock Square, a very central 
and good position, and the house excellent. 
Living at these houses, however, is very ex- 
pensive. The ordinary charges, including 
servants, but excluding wines, vary from 
four to five dollars a day, each item nearly- 
double the rate at the Astor or Tremont. 

After visiting Hyde Park, and the public 
buildings on Whitehall street, we embark 
near the new houses of Parliament on the 
Thames, in a miniature steamer, about ten 
feet wide, with an engine of eighteen horse 
power, and a crew of five men and boys, and 
run down to London Bridge, touching at va- 
rious landings. The river is thronged ■with 
these steamers from Richmond to Graves- 
end, and you may sail in them from one end 
of London to the other for four pence, or eight 
cents of our money, and run to Gravesend, 
twenty-four miles, for a shilling. They have 
no guards or promenade deck, and the boil- 



10 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



ers and engine occupy the principal part of 
the hold. The passengers stand or sit in the 
open air, exposed, of course, to the wind and 
rain. In speed they do not generally exceed 
eight to ten miles per hour, and being paint- 
ed black, have a dull appearance. These 
river boats are altogether inferior to the Ame- 
rican. Not so the English sea-steamers. 
The Thames steamers are con.stantly passing 
and repassing, and many are enlivened and 
made attractive by bands of music. 

As we run down the river under the lofty 
and massive stone and iron arches of the 
bridges, by which it is spanned, we pass in- 
numerable barges, lighters, and steamers. 
London, however, disappoints you, as viewed 
from the river. With the exception of St. 
Paul's, Somerset House, and the Temple 
Gardens, you see little but houses and stores, 
of various ages and styles, crowded in upon 
the river. It would be greatly improved by 
a noble street or quay on either side, with 
uniform ranges of buildings. After trans- 
acting business, we take a seat on the Black- 
wall Rail- way for the London Docks. This 
rail-way, three and three quarters miles in 
length, begins a quarter of a mile east of the 
Bank of England, and runs by the Docks to 
the Brunswick Pier Blackwall, cutting off a 
bend of the Thames around the Isle of Dogs. 
The cars run every fifteen minutes by sta- 
tionary power, and are of two classes, name- 
ly, 'sit downs' and ' stand ups,' both covered. 
The fare by the first 6d, by the second 4d, 
for the run ; the travellers by each class ap- 
pear nearly equally well dressed. This line 
has recently reduced its charges with bene- 
ficial results, as has also the Greenwich; and 
such is the competition of steamers and om- 
nibuses that further reduction will be neces- 
sary for success. 

Visit the Docks — large areas sufficiently 
spacious to receive a fleet, bordered by ranges 
of warehouses. Teas, coffee, and spirits are 
kept in immense masses, in separate ranges 
of buildings. See many thousand casks of 
spirit in extensive vaults and vats, in one of 
which a whole cargo of rum could be col- 
lected, to give it a uniform flavor. In the 
afternoon, accompany our friend, L. T. M., 
Esq., in his carriage, to his beautiful country 



Beat at Kennington, where we sit down to an 
admirable dinner, enlivened by the talents of 
our host and the conversation of his lady, one 
of the most charming women we have seen 
in England. After dinner, walk with the 
ladies through the garden and grounds, by 
trees, flowers, and shrubbery, an artificial 
lake, and over a lawn softer than velvet. At 
dinner, meet Gen. Duft' Green of Washing- 
ton, and return with him to our lodgings. 
Yours ever, Massachusetts. 
London, August 18, 1843. 



LETTER VL 

London and its Environs ■ — Morning Calls — 
The Parks — Westminster Abbey — An Edi- 
tor — The Thames Tunnel — The Opera — 
A Trip to Gravesend. 

As w^e are detained in London, awaiting 
tenders for our contract, we devote the 
day to calls and recreation. Visit Hyde 
Park, a delightful promenade, and stop for a 
moment at the Horse Guards, to admire the 
finest cavalry in the world — each man a giant 
in proportions, in high health, and admirably 
equipped and mounted. Call on the cele- 
brated engineers, Brunei and Vignolles, with 
letters of introduction, but regret to find they 
are both in the country. Take a carriage, 
and call, with letters of introduction from 
America, on Sir Charles Morgan, Sir Henry 
Martyn, and Lord Ashburton; but fortune is 
unpropitious : the former is at the point of 
death, the second proves to be the successor 
to an uncle, suddenly deceased, for whom my 
letter was intended, and the latter is at his 
country seat, near Southampton. Call upon 
our Minister, and obtain passports for France ; 
rejoin my friend C , and visit Westmin- 
ster Abbey ; listen to prayers and chanting, 
and accompany a guide through the chapels, 
to view the monuments which English grat- 
itude has reared to the distinguished dead. 
England remembers her heroes, and in the 
hour of peril they do not forget the honor of 
England. Here are memorials of men alike 
revered on both sides of the ocean — of some, 



THE OPERA. 



11 



to whom each country makes equal claim, 
beside champions of truth and freedom, rev- 
erenced even more in the new world than in 
the old. We pause to admire the elaborate 
and exquisite workmanship of the stone of 
which this fabric is composed, and the paint- 
ed windows, in which the ancients surpass 
the moderns. We are struck with the en- 
thusiasm of the English, and the cool indif- 
. ference of the French, who accompany our 
guide. In the afternoon, we ride up to Pen- 
tonville and Islington — continuous streets of 
well-built houses, for nearly five miles, and 
catch occasional views of Regent's Park, a 
fine expanse of lawns and walks. In pass- 
ing Regent's street, are struck with threo 
splendid warehouses for furs, wholesale and 
retail — one inscribed the Baffin Bay Com- 
pany's Fur Warehouse — another the Hud- 
son Bay Company, and a third the Russian 
and Northwest Coast Fur Warehouse. What 
indices of the power and resources of Eng- 
land, and of the vast regions tributary to her 
greatness ! 

August 19. Call by appointment on Mr. 

H , the editor of the Rail-way Magazine; 

find him a very intelligent and obliging 
gentleman. Receive from him letters of in- 
troduction to the managers of the principal 
rail-ways, and much information respecting 
carriages, gradients, and other subjects of in- 
terest. There is a manliness and independ- 
ence about this gentleman which I particu- 
larly admire ; he would incur obligations to 
no rail-way company whatever, but would be 
free to criticise and censure them at his plea- 
sure ; he even declines giving me a letter to 
one superintendent whom he knew, for fear 
he tnight be supposed to incur some obliga- 
tion. His principle is, that the press should 
be untrammelled and fearless. I could not but 
think we were occasionally deficient in this 
independence at home. Have we not one 
leading journal, rather too closely allied to a 
rail-way corporation; too apt to espouse its 
supposed interests, even though they may con- 
flict with those of the public ; too much dis- 
posed to deal out to its confiding readers such 
facts and such partial statements only as shall 
sustain a certain policy, and to close its col- 
umns to the other side of the arcument ? 



After transacting business, we make up a 
party and drive to the Thames Tunnel. The 
carriage-entrance to this magnificent work is 
still unfinished. To approach it with car- 
riages, whole streets and blocks must be re- 
moved, and avenues constructed, descending 
gradually seventy feet to the floor of the 
tunnel. We descend by easy and winding 
flights of steps into two arched ways (connect- 
ed by side arches, lofty, airy, dry, and beauti- 
fully lighted with gas, and well ventilated) 
and walk under old Thames, bearing on his 
bosom, and directly above us, ships of the 
largest class ranged in tiers, and leaving but 
a narrow passage for steamers, barges, ships, 
and the various water-craft of the river. We 
listen to music on our way, and, ascending on 
the other side, take boat for London Bridge, 
dodging steamers and wherries as v/e ascend. 

After a late dinner, repair to the London 
Opera, which, at a lavish expense, combines 
the attractions of dancing and song. Wa 
here listen to Grisi, Fornisari, and Lablache ; 
they are succeeded by the rival queens of 
the dance, Elssler and Cerito, wlio, on this 
last night of the season, contend for the su- 
premacy. Each has her admirers, and it is 
difficult to award the palm. Elssler displays 
her usual grace ; Cerito moves with the light- 
ness of a fawn. Flowers, garlands, and nose- 
gays, are showered upon each in such pro- 
fusion, that Cerito calls an assistant to aid in 
bearing hers away. 

August 20. Breakfast at the London tav- 
ern, Ludgate Hill ; take a view of Newgate, 
whose grim walls are most appropriate for a- 
prison ; view the ancient school of Christ's 
Hospital, the interior of St. Paul's, with its 
monuments of Nelson and Cornwalli^5, tlae 
last of whom bore home no laurels from 
Yorktown. We listen to the Church Service, 
admire the chanting, and then take a steamer 
for Gravesend to dine, embarking at London 
Bridge. We sail for miles along a narrow 
channel left open between fleets of vessels, 
principally colliers, at anchor in the stream ; 
as we proceed, passing and meeting eteam- 
ors, lighters, and vessels in motion ; catching 
a view of Blackwall on the left, and Green- 
wich, with its hospital, and Woolwich, with 
its arsenals, on the right. Below these, th©' 



12 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



shores of the river become low and marshy, 
but a beautiful district^ the county of Kent, 
rises in the distance to the south, variegated 
with woods, rolling hills, church spires, and 
gentlemen's seats, among which we distin- 
guish the noble mansion of Lord Say and 
Seal, whose ancestors took part in planting 
New England. 

Thousands and tens of thousands repair to 
Gravesend every fine day to enjoy the sail, 
escape the smoky atmosphere of London, to 
breathe the air of the country, and catch a 
glimpse of the ocean. We land and roam 
through open fields, and through a garden, or 
rather grotto, occupying the site of an ancient 
chalk quarry of many acres, filled with flow- 
ers, shrubbery, cells, ponds, lawns, birds of 
foreign plumage, archer's grounds, pavements 
of many colored pebbles ; repair to an inn to 
dine on a leg of lamb of the finest flavor, and 
return by steamer to London. On our return, 
a sudden shower bursts upon us — the ladies 
fly to the small cabins — the gentlemen shrink 
behind the wheel-houses and protect them- 
selves by mats, boards, great coats, and um- 
brellas, under one of which I receive three 
or four unfortunate individuals, one of whom 
surprises me by some statements as to the 
rate of wages in London, which afterwards 
are fully corroborated, From him I find that 
Printers receive, per week, 35 shillings, or 
■$8 40 ; Omnibus drivers, 35 shillings, or S8 
40 ; Carpenters, 30 shillings, or $7 20 ; Ma- 
sons, 36 shillings, or #8 64. 

These rates are much nearer those recent- 
ly paid in this country than I imagined. Pro- 
-visions, too, are much less than formerly. Sir 
Robert Peel's tariff has broken the price, for 
as soon as the rate rises, the foreign article is 
imported. The choicest beef and mutton and 
fresh salmon, are retailed at 5d to 6d, or ten 
to twelve cents per pound. The storm soon 
clears away. Arriving at London, we pass a 
■very delightful evening at the house of Mr. 
Everett, where we meet a circle of our friends 
from America. 

Yours, &c., 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

London, August 21, 1843. 



LETTER VIL 

The London Police — Rail-way Station — 
Wandsworth — Life in London — The Na- ■ 
tional Gallery — The Cartoons. 

This morning, August 21, we breakfast at 
Morley's, Charing Cross, with a friend, who 
has come up from Liverpool to negotiate ; and 
after disposing of our muflins and coff"ee, we 
devote the forenoon to business. In my 
walks through London, I am struck with the 
order and decorum observed in all the lead- 
ing streets, thronged as they are with vehi- 
cles and passengers, and must ascribe much 
to the admirable police. Wherever you may 
move, you observe, within a moderate dis- 
tance, a tall, good-looking man, in the prime 
of life, dressed in a blue coat and pantaloons, 
with a belt of black leather — this is the po- 
lice officer. If a cabman asks more than his 
fare, or if you have lost your way, you ap- 
peal to him, and with promptitude and po- 
liteness he puts you right. On one occasion, 
a policeman gave me a wrong direction ; be- 
fore I had walked fifty paces, he was by my 
side to correct the error, and apologize for 
his mistake. On another occasion, I heard 
one suggest to a suspicious looking boy, ' my 
lad, you have been here five minutes, look- 
ing at those goods, it is time you were off.' 
The result of this system is great safety to 
persons and property among two millions of 
inhabitants. Indeed, New York, w^hieh vir- 
tually has no police, might take a valuable 
lesson from London, both with respect to the 
streets, sewers, cabmen, and public order. In 
the great thoroughfares, the people of all 
classes are usually well clad, wearing gar- 
ments often coarser than with us, and boots 
and shoes uniformly thicker — the soles fre- 
quently studded with nails. 

After completing my business tour this morn- 
ing, I examine the Temple, the Templars 
Church and Gardens — the Churchin excellent 
repair, and a beautiful structure. I visit the 
joint station of the Greenwich. Croydon, Dov- 
er, and Brighton Rail-ways, lines which enter 
London by four tracks, resting on brick arches 
about twenty feet high, e.xtending three miles 



A RAIL- WAY STATION. 



13 



from the edge of Greenwich to LondonBiiJge. 
Here land is of great value, and more than 
a million of dollars has been expended in buy- 
ing estates, removing houses, and opening an 
area for an approach and depot. The depot, 
elevated twenty feet or more above the street, 
ia approached by two winding roads, and pre- 
sents in front a costly fabric of stone, appro- 
priated to offices ; behind this are the sheds, 
Blight structures, well ventilated, which re- 
ceive the trains. A small portion of the area 
is appropriated for goods, the arrangements 
for which are miserable in the extreme, and 
the space allowed not a tenth-part the room 
required. Indeed, I cannot learn there ia any 
good station in Europe to be compared with 
the principal depots of our line from Boston 
to Albany. A letter of introduction carries 
me through the station, and I take leave of 
my escort on a trip to Croydon ; but neither 
on this or any other occasion in England, is 
the courtesy shown me of a pass over the 
line, without charge — a courtesy so uniform- 
ly accorded to Engineers and Directors in 
our own country. 

On my trip to Croydon, I see nothing of 
moment to note, except the vast outlay upon 
the line. 

Returning to London, I embark with a par- 
ty of London friends, on the Thames, to dine 
at Richmond J the current and tide are against 
us, our steamer slow, and our progress mod- 
erate. As we gradually ascend the stream 
we pass two flocks of swans, at least a hun- 
dred in number, floating in the Thames. As 
the day is on the wane, we land at the an- 
cient village of Wandsworth, and repair to 
the inn, kept by a fine old man, wearing tights 
and gaiters. The house is without preten- 
sions in its appearance, but we are soon fur- 
nished with an excellent repast, and abund- 
ance of music. Just as we arrive, a band of 
ballad-singers favor us with a song. A Scotch 
bag-piper succeeds them. While at table 
we have another concert of violins from the 
street, all which is followed by the chiming 
of the village bells ; so much for ' Merry 
England.' 

We return by twilight in an omnibus, and 
alight at the Elephant and Castle, about two 
miles from Morley's. To this point various 



lines converge. Around the inn, lighted by 
gas, are hundreds of well-dressed persons 
of both sexes, at least a dozen omnibuses, sev - 
eral arriving and starting every minute, and 
exchanging passengers, and all the bustle of 
a muster or high holyday; and this, lam told, 
is usual every fine day of summer. In a few 
moments we are off by omnibus for our lodg- 
ings. 

This being the evening fixed for examin- 
ing our proposals, we open a file of letters 
from Scotland, Liverpool, Staffordshire, and 
London, and in the course of an hour con- 
clude a contract for 4000 tons of rails at a 
price equal to $23 75 per ton, delivered at 
Cardiff, a price less than the duty in America. 
And is it possible that our government will 
enforce such a duty '? Cheap arid easy com- 
munication is essential to the prosperity of 
the country, to the development of its water 
power and manufactures, to the manufac- 
ture and distribution both of iron ore emd iron 
itself. The T rail is not made in America ; 
we have uses enough for our home-made 
iron, at a better price ; we require return 
freight for our cotton ships. Other roads have 
paid no duties, and let us have no invidious 
distinctions. 

Having concluded our contract, our friends 
insist that we must see life in London, and 
escort us to a very large hotel, near Morley's. 
In the spacious basement of this house we 
find assembled a large body of young men, 
principally clerks, travellers, and merchants, 
partaking of refreshments at small tables. 
The host, aided by vice-presidents, presides, 
and music and song appear to be the order 
of the evening, the guesis joining in the cho- 
rus. Among other amusing songs, is one 
describing the hardships of an Englislunan — 
the taxes, the excise, the duties, high rents 
and charges — and winding up with a chorus 
of ' Happy Land,' ' Happy Land,' and the 
line, 

' England, with all thy faults, I love tliee still :' 

to which all respond with enthusiasm. 

August 22. Devote the morning to the 
drafting of our contracts, visit the National 
Gallery, and admire some fine paintings, by 
Murillo, Claude, and West ; but the collec- 



14 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



tion is unworthy of London, and will doubt- 
less ere long he surpassed in our own coun- 
try. Examine the cartoons designed for the 
decoration of the walls of the new houses of 
Parliament. They exhibit scenes from Eng- 
lish history ; one or two of them, presenting 
the early missionaries converting the Saxons, 
are eminently beautiful. We look at the 
Court Rooms of Westminster Hall, inferior in 
size, finish, and convenience, to our own ; 
conclude our business, and prepare for a trip 
to the Continent. 

Yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

London, August 23, 1843. 



LETTER Vlir. 

A Trip to Brighton — Crossing the Channel — 
Dieppe. 

During the morning of August 23d, we 
procure our passports from the French 
office, and at three p. m. drive to the station 
at London Bridge, and take the train for 
Brighton. Our car is one of the second class, 
with oval windows, unglazed, and runs on 
four wheels onl)^ A reduction has been re- 
cently made in the fare, which increases the 
income of the line. In our compartment 
are an English gentleman and his son, the 
latter on his way to Spain. We leave Lon- 
don on a range of arches — some of which are 
inhabited. About three miles out, two tracks 
leading to Greenwich diverge ; at a point 
eighteen miles from London, the Dover rail- 
way also diverges. The rails are well laid, 
but the cars, like all short cars, have an un- 
pleasant lateral motion, gTate on the curves, 
and are by no means pleasant ; a slight 
shower beats in at the window, and drives 
us to the opposite side, and I can discover no 
means by which such cars can be warmed 
in winter. The cuts are often deep, and the 
embankments high. The slopes are in 
many instances too steep to stand, and are 
not sodded ; they must occasion great ex- 
panse for repairs. Tunnels are constantly 
recurring. The countrj' for twenty-five 



miles is luxuriant and highly cultivated ; it 
gradually becomes more wild and broken, 
and resembles New England. Occasional 
tracts of waste land appear, and hedges are 
less frequent. Tlie fences and the bricks in 
the houses, resemble our own; but, for the 
whole distance from Liverpool to Brighton, 
the houses of the laborers and mechanics 
are smaller, more inconvenient, and worse 
furnished, than those of the same classes in 
America. The humane law which in New 
England preserves to the family its necessa- 
ry furniture and bedding against all claims 
for rents, taxes, or debt, and secures the in- 
mates from being sent shiftless into the 
street, does not exist in England. We 
travel at the rate of twenty miles the hour, 
and reach Brighton at five and a half 
o'clock p. M. The train stops under a range 
of sheds, open at the sides to the wind and 
rain, which in winter must be most comfort- 
leas. Between these and the street is a 
showy building of great length, divided into 
several large apartments for clerks and the 
sale of tickets, but without a chair to accom- 
modate those w^aiting for the train. The 
English depots are for the officials, not, like 
ours, for the travelling public. After dinner, 
we take a light carriage and drive around 
Brighton ; pass the pier, shops, hotels — some 
of which are good stone buildings — the pa- 
vilion, a fantastic structure, built by George 
the Fourth, and return to the station and stand 
there for an hour, awaiting the train for 
Shoreham. 

There is one thing here worthy of notice ; 
it is the mode of delivering baggage. A 
paper number is given you, and a duplicate 
placed on your trunk. A hollow square is 
formed around the baggage-car by a frame- 
work of pigeon-holes, like the boxes in a 
post-office, each large enough to receive a 
trunk. These bear numbers corresponding 
to the marks on the baggage, and visible on 
both sides ; and as each trunk is placed un- 
der its own number, the passenger finds it im- 
mediately. At nine p. m. take the train for 
Shoreham, the seaport of Brighton. The 
cars stop on an embankment ten feet above 
the shore, and within a few feet of the edge. 
The embankment is faintly lighted, and has 



CROSSING THE CHANNEL. 



15 



no fence. A lady falls over, and a gentle- 
man has a narrow escape from falling. It 
is rumored that the lady escapes without se- 
rious injury; but the wonder is that no 
limbs are broken. From this spot we are all 
obliged to walk, in a drizzling rain, (over 
what in the dark seems to be a beach, and a 
wet one, too,) nearly two hundred yards, to a 
miserable old steamer, called the ' Dart,' by 
her speed and model built at least twenty 
years since; one of those short unwieldly 
things which were in vogue in the early 
days of steaming. On reaching the vessel, 
we are required to pay 6d each for the priv- 
ilege of passing over the gravel with our 
trunks. Not a state-room or any saloon 
above deck are visible, and, on entering the 
after cabin, we find it filled with anxious ap- 
plicants for beds, and among them several 
ladies. But two or three berths or mattres- 
ses remain, which the steward is assigning 
to the most importunate men, to the exclu- 
sion of a lady. Thinking I may be of ser- 
vice to the latter, I observe, ' in America 
we first provide for the ladies ; and in a 
country like England, which claims to be 
civilized, I am surprised to see the reverse.' 
The effect of this is immediate. English 
pride is touched, and a berth found for the 
lady. Receiving the thanks of her husband 
or lover, and finding no chance to sleep, or 
even lie down in the after cabin, I repair 
with others to the fore cabin, where I discov- 
er a short upper berth vacant, so short that 
my feet must dangle over the side ; and find- 
ing no bed-clothes, I am obliged to lie down 
undressed. From this perch I look down on 
1 perfect chaos. A pile of luggage in the 
jentre sprinkled with mattresses, which, 
yith the berths, are occupied by men, wo- 
nen, and children, gentle and simple, Eng- 
ish, French, Irish, and German ; no servants 
)r attendants except a small white-headed 
5abin boy. who presides over a solitary light, 
V flickering tallow candle, and appears com- 
petent to do no more. In a few moments 
wt are at sea, taking the pilot with us, it 
bang too tempestuous to land him, and, as 
hesays, the worst night of the season. The 
wa'es are in rapid motion — more boistferous, 
in lict, than on our whole voyage across the 



Atlantic. The steamer pitches terribly, and 
seasickness becomes epidemic ; but my 
voyage has made me water-proof, and I re- 
sist the influence of the sea and the scene. 
Below me are women sobbing, men remon- 
strating, the tallow candle running down, 
the cabin boy standing with his hands in his 
pockets, with a deaf ear to a,\\ calls for aid, 
and children crying and repeating hymns in 
French and German. Amid a strance med- 
ley of Dutch and French vociferation, one 
lady exclaims, in a plaintive tone, ' Hus- 
band I shall die;' to which he cooly re- 
plies, 'out with it, it isn't much.' At length, 
exhausted and fatigued, I fall asleep, and, 
with occasional interruptions, get through 
the night. 

Thursday, August 24. Reach the deck at 
an early hour ; our vessel tossing on the 
troubled sea; many vessels around us under 
reefed sails, whose hulls occasionally disap- 
pear, as they rise and fall with the waves. 
The steamer looks even worse than in the 
evening, and the wonder is, that English- 
men will permit any Company, however 
powerful or grasping, to monopolize the 
most direct route between Paris and London, 
with a boat which would not live a month on 
any route in the United States, and at a fare, 
too, of 20 shillings, or S 4 80 for seventy miles 
— threefold a proper charge. 

The French coast is in sight — the sea 
breaking half-mast high on the rocks and 
piers which form the narrow entrance to 
Dieppe. The captain and pilot appear in 
anxious consultation, and hesitate what 
course to pursue ; at length they push for the 
port. The waves dash fiercely on either 
side, and threaten to force us upon the piers. 
The breaking of a crank, a tiller, or a slight 
derangement of our engine would wreck us; 
but we fortunately get safely in, to the relief 
of thousands of spectators, who watch our 
perilous entrance from the piers. 

We land among females in high white 
caps, soldiers, and custom-house officers. 
Our passports and our trunks are speedily 
examined, and we repair to a French coffee- 
house to breakfast. At our table we meet a 
French family conversing with great vivaci- 
ty, breakfasting on various small dishes, 



16 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



bread, butter, and wine. The butter is fresh, 
as in England ; and the bread, and our cafi 
au hit. excellent. 

Yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Dieppe, August 24, 1843. 



LETTER IX. 

Dieppe — Normandy — Rouen — The Theatre 
— Cathedral — Paris — The Louvre. 

After submitting our passports to the 
police for their indorsement, and examining 
the cathedral of Dieppe — a venerable 
old structure — we engage places in the dil- 
igence for Rouen, securing seats in the cab- 
riolet., that we may see the country. Our 
position is above the driver, and we are pro- 
tected from the weather by a boot and 
chaise-top. Below us is the qoupie, after 
that the interieur, and, behind all, the ro- 
iunde, with side seats. Our horses are five 
in number — three leaders abreast — and 
are inspirited by frequent cpacks of the 
whip, and an occasional sacre from the dri- 
ver. We slowly ascend a lofty hill which 
overlooks the port, and soon find ourselves 
on table-land in a high state of cultivation. 
The road appears nearly an air line of mag- 
nificent width, at least eighty feet inside the 
drains, a little rounded and perfectly smooth 
— altogether the best I have seen. The 
country is slightly undulating and fertile, 
frequently reminding me of the best vi^heat 
farms in Western New York. Nearly half 
the fields are in wheat of a luxuriant growth ; 
the residue in clover, turnips, oats, a little 
pasturage, and wood. Occasional avenues of 
old forest trees appear, leading to ancieiit 
chateaus or gentlemen's modern mansions ; 
villages substantially built of brick and 
ston'e ; hedges more luxuriant than any that 
have met my eye in England, and the crops, 
which arc ready for the sickle, superior to 
any I have seen between Birmingham and 
Brighton. The inhabitants reside principal- 
ly in the villages, and the lower classes ap- 
pear belter housed and fed than the English 



agricultural population. There is, however, 
more of the antique in the costuTne, their 
implements are more rude, and wooden 
shoes occasioiially clatter along the road. 
As we approach Rouen, the country be- 
comes more populous, and many factories 
are visible. 

We enter Rouen by a long and wide 
street, and soon perceive the Seine below us. 
A turn of the street brings us upon the river, 
a noble stream, the right bank of which is 
converted into a wide quay, lined with brigs 
and smaller vessels, and covered with mer- 
chandise. A wide avenue runs along the 
quay, bordered by stone buildings, hotels, 
and warehouses, overlooking the river, Avhich 
a bridge spans above the shipping. On the 
opposite shore is the station of the rail-way 
to Paris. From the quay we turn into a 
street running nearly at right angles, quite 
narrow, but clean, on each side of which 
are fine ranges of storehouses, four or five 
stories high. We drive to the oflice of the 
diligence, and engage rooms at the Hotel of 
the Roy ales Menageries, where we find 
the guests taking seats at the table d'hote, 
and sit down with them to dinner. Around 
us all is French — every guest and every 
attendant; each of our companions has a 
bottle of claret beside him, and a long and 
slender roll of bread ] the dinner is admira- 
bly cooked and served, while the guests 
are well-bred and courteous. 

In the afternoon we engage a valet de 
place, who conducts us through an immense 
cathedral, begun in the ninth century, with 
magnificent painted windows, stone pillars, 
and ornaments most exquisitely wrought. 
We admire particularly an ancient statue 
of Richard the Second, recently discovered. 
The building is apparently larger and more 
costly than Westminster -Abbey. We visit 
the Hall of Justice, a fine and spacious old 
structure, once the palace of the Dukes of 
Normandy — the ancient abbeys of St. Ar- 
naud and St. Antoine — the venerable 
palace of the Duke of Bedford, now d^ 
voted to commerce, in which 'Joan of Ar<i^ 
the deliverer of France, was tried and coi- 
demnod, and the square w^here she v^s 
burned — the ancient church of St. Etien^e^. 



THE LOUVRE. 



17 



now degraded to a slable. In the evening 
■\ve visit the theatre, and see a French 
tragedy. I ana particularly struck with the 
excitability of the audience, and the grace of 
the French actresses, one of whom person- 
ates a youthful queen, with an elegance, 
dignity, and fascination of manner, which 
carry me back to the days of Francis and 
Henry the Fourth. 

August 25. We rise at an early hour and 
drive across the Seine, to the depot of the 
Paris and Rouen Rail-way. The cars are 
good — the first and second clasa are glazed 
and cushioned ; the third class covered — 
the rates moderate ; the depot grounds ex- 
tensive, and very favorable for a great mer- 
chandise station, lying as they do on the 
banks of the Seine, and apparently accessi- 
ble by square-rigged vessels. The mer- 
chandise depot and cars are as yet incom- 
plete, but it is very apparent, that this line, 
connecting Paris with tide-water, must com- 
mand an immense and most lucrative 
freight traffic. The stock is already at an 
advance. 

We leave Rouen at an early hour ; as we 
proceed, the country becomes less fertile and 
more wild and broken ; we have occasional 
views of the Seine, whose valley we follow, 
cross and recross the river, and pass through 
several tunnels. The rail-way shows indi- 
cations of skill and judgment, and is appa- 
rently less costly than those we have trav- 
ersed, and more like the American. The 
fields are small, and we see occasional 
patches of wood. We reach Paris at an 
early hour, and, passing the Place Vendome, 
take lodgings at Meurice's Hotel, on the 
Rue Rivoli. Devote the afternoon to a sur- 
vey of the Palais Royal, the Gardens of the 
Tuilleries, dine at a restaurateur, and retire at 
an early hour, overcome with fatigue. 

August 26. After walking through the 
Gardens of the Tuilleries and the Place 
Carousal, we enter the Louvre, once the res- 
idence of French Kings, but now converted 
by the progress of events into a splendid 
museum of the fine arts, which strangers, 
and on certain days the public, may enter 
without charge. We leave our umbrellas at 
the entrance, and walk almost continuously, 

2 



for nearly four hours, through a succession 
of halls and elegant apartments — lined with 
statuarj^, paintings, ancient furniture of pal- 
aces, relics from Pompeii and Herculaneum — 
the floors tessellated ; the ceilings richly gilt 
and painted ; the w^hole in a style of royal 
magnificence. Tall, blue-coated serving- 
men are in attendance in each hall, who 
cheerfully answer our inquiries. We pause 
to admire a silver statue of young Henry 
the Fourth, and again at the apartment and 
beside the couch where he died. Ranges of 
beautiful paintings by Murillo, Claude, and 
Rubens attract our attention, among which we 
particularly admire a picture of St. John and 
the Saviour, by Murillo, on a scale as large 
as life. A ceiling representing Francis the 
First, with his sister the Queen of Hungary, 
and his suite, ascending a staircase, arrests 
our attention, as does also the Coquette, a 
modern painting, by Signani, which no less 
than four artists are copying. Many young 
painters of both sexes frequent these galle- 
ries, and some make admirable copies, which 
would at small expense enrich our collec- 
tions in America. We stop to admire urns, 
vases, lamps, and other utensils of Hercula- 
neum, showing the great proficiency of the 
Romans in the arts, and, deeply impressed 
with the liberality of France, repair to a res- 
taurant to dine. In the evening we resort to 
a Vaudeville Theatre, to witness the per- 
formance of Madame Barbe-blue, which we 
see announced by handbills at almost every 
corner, but it disappoints our expectations, 
and we retire early to repose. 
Yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Paris, August 26, 1843. 



LETTER X. 

A French Breakfast — Versailles — The Cha- 
teau — Pictures, Gardens, and Fountains — 
Dinner, Music, and Return by Rail-way. 

This morning I breakfast with my friends, 
Col. W. and lady, from New Orleans, in their 
elegant apartments in Meurice's Hotel, and 
partake with them of fresh figs, strawberries, 



18 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



and delicious caf6 uu hilt. In this great 
capital, my friends, during their brief stay, 
with a moderate expense, command an excel- 
lent suite of rooms, good attendance, ever}'- 
delicacy of the season, a baro;iche, coach- 
man, and valet de place, all civility, and fa- 
miliar with several languages. After break- 
fast, we accompany a party of gentlemen to 
the great fete at Versailles ; and, to give va- 
riety to our route, take outside seats, drive 
through the Elysian Fields, and along a 
magnificent road, at least sixty yards wide, 
including malls on either side, planted with 
trees. -As we approach the chateau, the in- 
scription, in French, ' To the Glory of 
France,' arrests our attention. Amid a throng 
of citizens and strangers, of both sexes, and 
of all ranks, classes, and ages, and varying 
costumes, we pass the vestibule, and enter a 
series of saloons, surpassing in. splendor all 
that I have ever seen or imagined. For 
nearly four hours we move onward, for miles, 
amid statues, paintings, mirrors, marble pil- 
asters, windows opening to the floor., upon 
gardens, lawns, groves, fountains, a,nd stat- 
ues, each hall about thirtj- feet wide, and 
from thirty to one hundred feet long, with 
a lofty ceiling, divided into compartments 
exquisitely painted and gilded — tlien 
through long corridors connecting the sa- 
loons, lined with statues and busts. As we 
advance, these saloons appear endless, and 
each so splendid, that alone, in America, it 
would attract strangers from a distance. The 
walls of the saloons, in the spaces between 
the mirrors and windows, are covered with 
large oil paintings, presenting all the distin- 
guished men of France," and the most bril- 
liant eras in its history, illustrating, particu- 
larly, the eras of Henry the Fourth, Louis 
the Fourteenth, Napoleon, and Louis Phil-' 
ippe. We pass beside CI o vis, Pepin, 
Charlemagne, and their successors, the mar- 
shal;?, high constables, and great warriors of 
France — her state.smen, ministers, nobles, 
and poets — her sieges and victories. Ver- 
Bailles is, in truth, a monument to perpetuate 
the fame of France, and to animate with 
kindred Are the descendants of her distin- 
guished dead. We pause besidt* the Mar- 
shal Compte de Rautzou, mounted on a no- 



ble steed, wiih a face seamed with scars' 
and without an arm and an eye ; below, is 
the inscription, ' Covered with wounds in the 
service of his country, there is nothing entire 
but his heart.' We pass on beside Turenne, 
Sully, the gxeat Conde, Godfrey de Bouillon, 
Joan d'Arc, Murat, Ney, Victor, Lannes, and 
Poniatowsky — v,-3 view the' consecration of 
Charles the Seventh, at Rheims, with the 
Maid of Orleans in the foreground, enjoying 
her triumph; the interview of the field of 
cloth of gold ; Colbert, presenting the manu- 
facturers to Louis Ic Grand ; the Coronation 
of Napoleon ; andthe signature of the Charter, 
by Louis Philippe. V/e gradually descend 
from the romance, steel armor, and hauteur of 
the Middle Ages, to the dashing and deter- 
mined spirits who led the armies of Bona- 
parte, and from them to the more common- 
place and uninteresting generals, in the dress 
of the present day. We stop to admire the 
statue of the Maid of Orleans, by the Prin- 
cess Marie — an exquisite work, which 
would have given fame to the humblest art- 
ist. Each step of our progress presents a 
novelty within, and each windoAV some new 
feature of the landscape. 

Meanwhile, two rail-ways from Paris in 
incessant motion, lines of omnibuses, cahri- 
olctSj Jiacrcs, and cocos. (a two-wheeled om- 
nibus, overladen v.dth eight or ten persons,) to 
say nothing of pedestrians and private car- 
riages, are constantly pressing into Ver- 
sailles a tide of well-dressed people, nearly 
all of whom follow or precede us through 
the chateau to the grounds. Here we 
enter groves, and roam by ponds, canals, 
and statues, contemporary with Louis the 
Fourteenth, the founder of Versailles. At 
various points are fountains, rising amid gar- 
dens of flowers J at another point, ssveial 
walks under overarching trees converge at a 
pool, from which rise, in a circle, twenty 
jets, like so many fpoplars, cooling the air 
with their spra)'. At another, the carp rise, 
to be fed with bread from our hands. In- 
viting v/alks tempt us to the forest, and stat- 
ues meet us at every turn. 

The air is soft, clear, and balvny — and it 
requires no great stretch of fanc}'' to imagine 
one's self in fairy land. As the afternoon 



FRENCH RAIL- WAYS. 



19 



advances, the visitors assemble by thous- 
ands, around the borders and banks of a 
pond, resembling in its form the pond on 
Boston Common; about thirty thousand are 
collected here. At a given hour, at least 
one hundred fountains spring from the 
mouths of lions, tritons, nymphs, and other 
figures around, and from all parts of the 
pond, to the height of forest trees, cooling 
the air, and by their spray sparkling in the 
sunshine, reminding ine of a brilliant show 
of fire-works. 

To all this display, provided at an expense 
of $300,000,000 for the recreation of a mon- 
arch and his courts and inaccessible to the 
people whose wealth it had absorbed, the 
progress of liberal ideas and the bounty of 
the citizen King admits all Paris. 

As we leave the grounds, we meet an 
English student, resident at Versailles, and 
accompany him to his restaurant, where, un- 
der his guidance, we sit down to a dinner, 
comprising soups, meats, lettuce, pastry, 
wines, strawberries, and melons, for the mod- 
crate price of two francs each. While we 
dine, a female musician plays to us on the 
harp; a violinist, in an old court dress, and 
with powdered hair and a bag, presents each 
of us with a sonnet ; a party of ladies take a 
table near us, calling each for a bottle of 
claret, and amuse themselves between the 
courses with feeding a pet monkey and a 
parrot. We take the rail-way, and, for a 
franc each, return to Paris. 
Yours, truly, 

MASSACHrSETTS. 

Paris, AugTist 28, 1843. 



LETTER XL 

Jardin Des Plants — Meurke's Table d' Note 
— French Rail-way Stations and Shops — ' 
31. Chevalier — Improvements — Low Fares 
on Rail-ways. 

Rising at an early hour, we read the Eng- 
lish newspapers ; — and here let me remark, 
with reference to the progress of America, 
that, while the distance is no more from 



London to Paris than from New York to 
Boston, the London paper is nearly two days 
old before I can read it in the French capi- 
tal, while every day, at eight a. m., you are 
reading in Boston the New York papers of 
the previous evening, delivered to you in 
si.Ytoen hours from the press. Why do such 
barriers still exist between the two great 
capitals of Europe? We breakfast at the 
Caf6 de .Denmark, visit the shops, admire the 
venerable church of Notre Dame, the tower 
of St. Jacques — a relic of the datk ages — 
traverse the beautiful Jardin des Plants, and 
glance at the giraffes, zebras, leopards, lions, 
and other rare animals which it contains, 
among which are many varieties of the 
feathered race. We visit the spacious 
square of Concord, the Elysian Fields_. 
planted with trees, from which we comniaHd 
fine views of the Chamber of Deputies, and 
church of the Madelaine — elegant modern 
structures. We look for a moment, as wo 
cross the Seine, into the Morgue, where the 
body of a poor old. man, recently fished from 
the river, is exposed for recognition ; and af- 
ter a drive, to banish from our minds the im- 
pressions produced by tliis spectacle, dine at 
Ivleurice's. Here a long table is spread', 
richly ornamented with flowers in vases. 
The cutlery, porcelain, plate, and damask 
cloths are all in keeping — the waiterB 
numerous and most attentive. Some fifty 
guests, of whom nearly half are ladies, and 
many English, sit down to an elegant repast. 
Here are all the delicacies of the season. 
Course succeeds course, and each dish is of- 
fered to every guest. At no private table 
have I ever seen a more elegant dinner. In 
the evening we resort to the amphitheatre — a 
light and beautiful edifice on the Elysian 
Fields, most admirably modelled and lighted. 
We here witness some remarkable feats in 
riding, particularly by female equestrians, 
one of whom appears to move with most per- 
fect security and self-possession, with the 
tip of one foot barely touching the flank of 
her well-trained horse. At this season, 
while Rachel and other distinguished per- 
formers are in the provinces, the Amphithe- 
atre, or Franconi's, is the fashionable re- 
sort. 



20 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



After a refreshing sleep at Meurioe's, we 
go, by appointment, to visit tlie joint station 
of the Rouen, Versailles, and St. Germain 
rail-ways. Monsieur P., a brother of the 
acting director, and the engineers, very kind- 
ly accompany us, and give us every facility 
for observation. The station house ia a 
large building, with pillars, fronting upon a 
court, where passengers alight from their 
cabs or omnibuses. You ascend by a flight 
of steps, and pass various ticket-offices, to 
halls reserved for the several classes of trav- 
ellers. Above are offices for clerks, engin- 
eers, and directors. Beyond are platforms in 
the open air, running between many lines of 
rails, provided with turn-tables, upon which 
the trains are arriving and departing. 

At one point, we observe a frame crossing 
the track, with a cross rail-way, and a car 
upon it, at a height of sixteen feet. By this, 
with the aid of a winch, diligences and pri- 
vate carriages are in a few moments lifted, 
with their passengers and baggage, from the 
wheels and axles, and transferred to platform 
cars, and at Rouen again placed on wheels. 
and put ' en route ' for Havre. No suitable 
depot ia, as yfet, provided for freight. The 
repair shops are large ; several buildings, 
twenty-five by one hundred and fifty feet, 
with a' steam-engine of thirty horse-power, 
and extensive sheds and grounds, are provi- 
ded for repairs, and are in excellent order. 
The rails of the Versailles line, although 
light, and in use every quarter of an hour, 
have stood well for seven years. The weight 
on each wheel of the engines is from three 
to four tons only \ on car wheels less than 
two tons to a wheel. No chilled wheels are 
used here, or on the leading English roads, 
except for gravel trains. Coal costs here 
about $10 per ton; wood, nearly $16 per 
cord ; about seventeen pounds of coke is 
consumed per mile. 

Our guides assure us, that the reduced 
rates of fare on the Versailles and St. Ger- 
main rail-roads, which average from one to 
two cents per mile, are very successful, and 
they all agree in opinion that a still lower 
rate would increase their income. All the 
cars on these lines are short, and no improv- 
ed boxes or bearings, like ours, are in use ; 
of course, the expense of repairs and oiling 



is very heavy. Our conductors most courte- 
ously provide us with plans of the depot and 
offices, and all the information we desire. 
From the depot we go, by appointment, to 
the rooms of Michael Chevalier, the author 
of the great work on the public improve- 
ments in America, for which he has received 
from Louis Philippe the grand cross of the 
Legion of Honor, and by which he has gain- 
ed a reputation in Europe. He is now high 
in the confidence of government, and exerts 
a great influence in the establishment of the 
French rail-ways. He is also employed as 
one of the Board of Commissioners on the 
subject of abolishing slavery in the French 
West Indies, and is publishing a very valua- 
ble and most elaborate report on that subject. 
We consult him, as a scientific man, upon 
the question of the policy of low fares, as a 
source of revenue, on rail-ways, and he as- 
sures us, that all his experience, observation, 
and reflection, have made him a convert to 
this policy. In the course of the conversa- 
tion he informs us, that the French steam- 
packets are rapidly progressing, and will, cer- 
tainly, run next season to the United States ; 
that the commissioners have not reported, but 
will soon designate the terminus in America. 
We, of course, enlarge upon the importance of 
adopting the shortest and most direct line to 
insure despatch ; we speak of the rail-ways 
open through the winter, diverging in all di- 
rections from Boston ; on its rapid growth in 
population, wealth, and commerce, even in 
disastrous times; its fine harbor, and the 
new rail-way progressing towards Montreal, 
to all which he lends an attentive ear. Be- 
fore we leave, he gives us a letter to Monsieur 
Poiree, No. 23 Rue Malequais, Paris, who 
has invented a hinge dam for the improve- 
ment of navigation, now in use in the Seine, 
admirably adapted to some of our western 
rivers, like the Wabash and Monongahela. 
This dam, in low stages of the river, raises 
the water six feet, and, in high stages, lies at 
the bottom of the river. After an interview 
of an hour, we take our leave of our accom- 
plished friend. 

From all we can learn in Paris, we infer 

that France, although late in the field, will soon 

have the best system of rail-ways in Europe. 

The lines radiate from Paris to all the 



RAIL-WAY FARES. 



21 



leading cities and seaports, and will soon be 
highways to, the ocean, England, Germany, 
Spain, and the Mediterranean. It haa been 
the judicious policy of France by the aid of 
science, to design the outlines, fix the rates, 
prescribe the style of construction, and a mod- 
erate tariff, and then to draw in the energy 
and frugality of private associations to com- 
plete and conduct the enterprises by liberal 
loans at low rates of interest. 

The final results of this policy may even 
now be inferred, from the success of the Pa- 
ris and Rouen and Paris and Orleans lines, 
still unfinished, but earning eight per cent., 
and selling at thirty-three per cent, premium. 
On the Paris and Orleans, whose average 
charges for passengers are but little above the 
Belgian rates, and do not average more than 
one and three-fourth cents per mile, the pas- 
serfger income has risen to one hundred and 
forty thousand francs per week, for eighty-two 
miles; and now exceeds, by a considerable 
amount, the passenger income of the Paris 
and Rouen, of the same length — whose 
rates are rather higher. The inferior route, 
with the more liberal policy, has gained the 
ascendancy. 

From the Chaussee d' Antin we ride to the 
Hotel des Invalides, the magnificent residence 
of the old soldiers of France, and destined 
Fo be the tomb of Napoleon. We walk 
among the shattered heroes of Austerlitz and 
Marengo, happy in the sunshine, and en- 
gaged in recounting their adventures, and in 
•various amusements. We admire the Chapel, 
hung with trophies, and the comfortable 
rooms of the veterans. We ride thence to 
Pere la Chaise, which, in size, position, and 
ornament, surpasses our expectations ; it has 
not, however, the shrubs, trees, waters, or 
romance of our own Mount Auburn. The 
walks ascend apparently, a third of a mile 
upon rising ground, which overlooks all Pa- 
ris and the valley of the Seine. The monu- 
ments are often beautiful, planted with flow- 
ers, and adorned with bouquets, indicating 
great reverence for the dead. We notice the 
tower of Beauvoir, a family monument; the 
far-famed tomb of Abelard and Eloise, and a 
more recent and elegant monument to the 
French Minister, Cassimer Perrier. In the 



evening we walk the Boulevards, and sit by 
the fountains of the gardens of the Palais 
Royal. Yours, ever, 

M.\SS.iCHUSETTS. 

Paris, August 29, 1843. 



LETTER Xn. 

The Pantheon — Very's — Theatre Frangais 
— The Church of the Madelaine — Museums 
of the Navy and Artillery — 'Des Deu:^ 
Fieres Provinciaux.' 

The diligences of France are controlled 
by companies whose policy it is to run 
full. Travellers who desire the beist seats 
are often obliged to M'ait several days. 
Having determined to visit the Rhine, we 
send a courier to engage places for ourselves 
and Col. W. The best he can accomplish is, 
to secure two in the coitpie, and one in the 
cabriolet, of the diligence which leaves Paris 
for Strasburg, in three days from this time. 
For these seats we pay si.Yty francs in ad- 
vance. 

We call on Monsieur "znard, our highly re- 
spected French Consul, now on a -visit to 
France, with a view to the education of his 
sons. 

We cross the Seine, and drive up a hill to 
the Pantheon, another monument of the age 
of Louis the Fourteenth, an immense stone 
church, or rather temple, with a dome richly 
painted. In the vaults beneath, we look at 
monuments of Rousseau and Voltaire, and 
other men of genius. We ascend by winding 
staircases to the cupola, apparently 300 feet 
or more above the foundations, and to which 
height the structure is solid stone. The ham- 
mered stone would sufRce, I have no doubt, 
to build twenty American churches, and, util- 
itarian as I am, I would at once have sacri- 
ficed its grandeur for such an object. Be- 
neath us is all Paris, intersected by the Seine, 
with its gardens, arches, public edifices, and 
churches, its ancient roofs covering long lines 
of grey stone buildings. At our feet, are the 
Scotch and Irish Colleges, where many a 



22 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



Catholic has come from the British Isles to 
be reared ia a faith proscribed in' his own 
covmtr}'. Around ps are the hospitals, those 
noble charities of Paris. The view is beau- 
tiful, and yet how different from that enjoyed 
from the elevations of Boston and New York. 
The expanse of water whitened with sails, 
the rising edifices, the spires of churches, the 
busy hum of commerce, all are wanting. We 
descend from the giddy height, and dine, at 
Yery's, the far-famed restaurateur of Paris, in 
a hall decorated with splendid mirrors and 
other ornaments, over all which two beauti- 
fql females preside, issuing their orders to a 
host of attendants, and greeting you with a 
smile and a bow as you adjust your bill. 

In the evening we attend the Theatre Fran- 
cais, and witness the performance of two 
comedies of Moliere • but not speaking or 
rather hearing the language with the same 
ease with which I read it, I am unable to ap- 
preciate all the wit of the author. 

August 31. At an early hour this morn, 
Ave visit the interior of the church of the Mad- 
elaine, a most costly building — the ceiling 
richly gilded and painted — long ranges of 
Grecian pillars support the roof, and, were I 
disposed to criticise, I should complain of an 
excess of ornament. To my taste, a religi- 
ous ediiace, to be pleasing, should be more 
severe in its architecture. The pointed Goth- 
ic tends more with me to awaken solemn 
thoughts and religious feelings. 

An English merchant, Mr. T., to whom we 
have letters from London, accompanies us to 
the Museum of the Navy. Here, in a series 
of halls, we fin-d collected large and perfect 
models of the ' crack' ships of the French 
Navy, from a sloop of war to a ' three deck- 
er,' some of them of great symmetry — par- 
ticularly the Alceste frigate, and Terpsichore 
ship of the line. Here, also, are models, on a 
large scale, of all the French ports, including 
all the docks, navy yards, ship-houses, har- 
bors, and defences, presenting each build- 
ing, and the elevation and depression of the 
ground ; — so that whenever a question arises 
as to any structure, the administration, with- 
out leaving Paris, may examine the spot 
where it stands, or is to b,e placed, and by a 
glance may determine the comparative ad- 



vantages of each port for the object in 
view. 

How useful v/ould such models be to our own 
government, and how small an appropria- 
tion would secure such important advantages. 
Before we leave the halls, we are struck 
with one, the sides of which are covered with 
the gilded ornaments of some magnificent 
vessel, naval decorations, richer than I have 
ever seen in use. A drawing is shown us of 
a stately galley, in which Louis le Grand, a 
century and a half since, was wont to coast 
the shores of the Mediterranean, and these 
ornaments once adorned her prow and stern. 
Imagine the monarch, with his court and 
mistresses in this proud galley — a copy 
from the models of antiquity, with her curl- 
ing beak and elevated stern — propelled, not 
only by sails, but by at least an hundred row- 
ers, visiting his ports, and receiving the hom- 
age of his subjects. All this has given place 
to the strength, simplicity, and iron of mod- 
ern naval architecture. 

We pass to the Museum of the Artillery. 
Here are preserved the suits of armor, lances, 
arrows, maces, battle-axes, guns, pistols, 
swords, sabres, which for the last four cen- 
turies have been used in French warfare. 
Here are corslets of polished steel, chain 
armor, complete suits richly ornamented with^ 
gold and silver, models of kings and knights 
as large as life, and on horseback, completely 
equipped for the field of battle or tourna- 
ment,some in the identical armor the originals 
onca wore ; ma,ny accoutrements enriched 
with the nameaof their distinguished owners ; 
guns, often eight or nine feet long, covered 
with precious stones or silver ornam.ents taken 
from the Turks or Algerines ; pistols with re-- 
volving barrels ; swords and pistols combined. 
It is, in fact, a repository of all that relates to 
war, in which you may trace the gradual 
innovations of modern science. 

We accompany our friend to the Restau- 
rant des deux Freres Provinciaux to dine. 
We ascend into a large and airy hall, over- 
looking the garden and fountains of the Pa- 
lais Royal ; the day is warm, the sky clear, 
the windows open to the floor to admit the 
breeze, and we sit down to a dinner selected 
by our host. Before we leave, our kind and 



OPINIONS OF AMERICA. 



23 



attentive friend surprises us by saying, • I, 
too, have been in America, and have a great 
regard for your countrymen. I was captured 
by the brave Captain Blakely, in the Wasp ; 
my ship, which he took, contained all that I 
■was worth ; his orders, which he showed me, 
compelled him to destroy her, and he did so, 
and ray loss grieved him almost as much as 
it did me. I stood beside him when he 
fought the Frolic, until he insisted I should 
go below and not expose myself to death 
from English cannon. The battle was v^ell 
fought on both sides ; the Frolic was in- 
ferior in size, and he did justice to the bra- 
very of my countrymen. As soon as the 
fight was over, he sent me in charge of a 
boat to tell the survivors they should be treat- 
ed with humanity. They will believe you, 
he said, for you are an Englishman ; and we 
did receive every kindness, both from him 
and ashore ; and if there is a man whose 
memory I respect, it is Capt. Blakely, and 
should it be your fortune to meet his widow, 
assure her of my remembrance and sympa- 
thy.' 

I remain, yours ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Paris, August 31. 1813. 



LETTER XIII. 

The Hospitals — Cotton Cloth — News from 
America — The Diligence — Military Stu- 
dents — The Young Advocate — The Shep- 
herds — The Country Louvain. 

We, rise at an early hour on the morning 
of September 1st, our last day in Paris, to 
accompany our friend, Dr. M., on his morn- 
ing walk. We .enter with him the Hospital 
of Charitj", built around a hollow square, and 
follow him through the wards. Every thing 
is in order, the floors nicely swept, the rooms 
well ventilated, and the patients well attend- 
ed. This hospital is open to every one, no 
passport and no money are required. The ap- 
plicant is merely asked, ' are you poor, are 
you sick,' and if the answer is 'yes,' is ad- 
mitted. As we move along wc observe every 



stage of disease — some are recovering j the 
flushed faces and difficult breathing of others 
announce the progress of death ; and one poor 
fellow lies in the last -stages of that virulent 
complaint, the smallpox, once' the scourire 
of Boston. We feel that we have seen 
enough, and breathe more freely as we reach 
the open air. 

We visit the shops, to make some addi- 
tions to our w^ardrobe, and to our surprise find 
that America is far in advance of France in 
the manufacture of cotton. In Paris, cotton 
cloth is a third dearer than in Boston. We 
return to Meurice's, the papers announce the 
arrival of a steamer from America. We look 
for the news from home. The first thing we 
observe is a sad outrage in the United States 
by a Mr. Clay, who has attacked his oppo- 
nent with a bowie knife, put out his eye, and 
cut off his ear, and the article concludes with 
the observation, (which I know to be untrue.) 
that the culprit is a son of one of the candi- 
dates for the Presidency. This savage act, 
doubtless highly colored, and misrepresented, 
is to circulate through Europe, and be cited 
as a proof of the barbarism to which our in- 
stitutions are hurrying us ; — such things are 
carefully culled from our papers to reconcile 
Europeans to absolute government. Let the 
youth, who uses a deadly weapon in his 
feuds, however distant he may be from our 
great centres of civilization, reflect, that ho 
not only violates law and religion, but is dis- 
gracing his country and rivetting tlie chains 
of thousands. 

At noon, we take leave of our obliging 
landlord, Mr. Calliez, and a circle of Ameri- 
can friends, and drive to the office of the dil- 
igence. Here, in a hoUov/ square, are ar- 
ranged vehicles destined for all parts of 
France. The door is opened, and we alight, 
and are immediately greeted by civil appli- 
cants for money, one for opening the door, 
one for lowering the steps, another for mov- 
ing our baggage, whom w^e easily quiet with 
a few coppers. Our trunks are arranged with 
others on the top of our diligence ; beside 
them sits a shepherd's dog, w-ho travels with 
us to Lorraine. Our companion in the cou- 
pes is a young French advocate; our fellow- 
travellers in the cabriolet are two students, 



24 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



from the Military Academy at Sancy, near 
Paris, going home for the vacation. In the 
other parts of the veliicle are persons of little 
note. Our drirer is accompanied by a con- 
ducteur, who manages the brake and directs 
every stop and movement. 

To view the country, I select the cabriolet. 
As we leave Paria, I notice the new and form- 
idable fortificaliens which encircle it. With- 
in these is a wide belt of land to allow space 
for future expansion. As we proceed east- 
ward, the country appears highly cultivated : 
but, divided into small farms, little wood and 
no waste land are seen ; the people seem 
more rude, and sabots, clumsy forks, rakes, 
scythes, and carts, make their appearance ; 
hugh ploughs are also seen, with two wheels 
in front. 

About 6 p. M. we stop half an hour to dine 
at a small village near a church. A lady 
leaves us, and seeks the church, apparently 
for her devotions ; the residue of our party sit 
down to abetter dinner than we usually find 
in a village inn, namely, a soup, roast fowl, 
beef, veal, spinage, beans, fruit, wine, and 
coffee, all for three francs each. As we pro- 
ceed, I notice alternate fields of wheat in the 
sheaf, oats, potatoes, clover, lucerne, a little 
pasturage, and no fences. The road is eigh- 
ty feet wide, ]\Iacadamised and graded like 
a rail-way ; beside it are frequent piles of 
stone, for repairs. Occasional flocks of sheep 
browse by the roadside, under the care of a 
shepherd and his wolf-like dog, who hurries 
them out of the way of our diligence. The 
sheep are merinos ; the shepherd bears a 
etafi with a curved iron at the end ; with this 
he occasionally whips up a sod, and hurls it 
at the sheep or the dog. My military comrades 
are very lively and courteous ; they point out 
objects of interest, and converse with me in 
French and Latin; they sing several spirited 
songs, and among others. ' Malbrook has gone 
to the wars.' One of them plays with much 
skill upon the bugle. About midnight we 
pass through Sexanne, an ancient French 
town, as silent as the grave. The buildings 
of brick and stone look grim in the faint light, 
and appear as if they' had stood unaltered 
since the days of Clovis or Pepin. As the 
night grows cool, I take refuge in the coupee. 



Between the' hours of one and five a. m. we 
traverse a sterile district — a thin soil resting 
on chalk, but partially cultivated. Soon after 
daylight the aspect of the country improves. 
We stop at Vitry for breakfast, and, for a sin- 
gle franc, are each furnished with good cof- 
fee, bread, and butter. We address our host- 
ess in French, but to our surprise she answers 
us in English, and tells us she is from Eng- 
land. In a few moments we are off. The 
country appears more fertile, but eeems un- 
inhabited. We command a prospect for 
miles, and not a house is visible, when sud- 
denly we descend into a valley, and find 
ourselves in a village. In such villages 
there are usually several streets, with blocks 
of stone houses, each about twenty feet wide, 
and two or three stories high, with red roofs 
and glazed windows. The attic is usually a 
storehouse, filled with sheaves of wheat. 
The men are almost uniformly clothed in a 
plain dark blue cotton frock and trowsers ; 
the women in cotton dresses and caps, with- 
out bonnets. The latter are plain, and, as 
well as the former, often at work in the fields, 
with rakes, sickles, or hoes — semetimes 
with large baskets on their backs, or on 
donkeys, which they ride. The children of 
both sexes are better looking and clad than 
the parents, and in appearance and dress are 
much like our New England boys and girls. 
We pass long lines of carts, principally laden 
with cotton, and bound towards the Eastern 
provinces of France. Occasional hills ap- 
pear, at the foot of which the team is with- 
drawn from one and attached to the other, 
and vice versa. In climbing a steep hill, we 
pass a heavy load of cotton (doubtless Ame- 
rican) resting on two broad wheels, and drawn 
by eleven horses. 

We are now passing through the cham- 
pagne country. Leaving Chalons, Epernay, 
and Chateau Thierry a little to our left, and 
stopping at the village Void, at a good inn, to 
dine, we are furnished Avith a bottle of the 
sparkling wine of the country. For the guid- 
ance of our landlords, I preserve the bill of 
fare : soup, fried pike, trout, chickens dressed 
with mushrooms,beef, meat pie, fried potatoes, 
claret, champagne, apricots, and a very rea^ 
sonahh bill. 



THE CITY OF NANCY. 



25 



Our young advocate proves to be a very- 
accomplished man ; he converses with us in 
French and Latin, speaking the last tongue 
with great ease and fluency, and, in the 
course of his remarks, observing, Lingua 
semper colendd est. He expatiates much 
on the scenery of Lorraine and the attrac- 
tions of Nancy, his native city, its walks and 
fountains — on the great battle under its walls, 
in which Charles the Bold of Burgundy fell 
' — on the monuments of its ancient dukes, 
independent of France until within two cen- 
turies — and on the beauty of its ladies, who, 
he assures us, are celebrated for their charms 
through France. 

We descend gradually from the table-land 
to the valley of the Meurthe, through a brok- 
en and picturesque country, and pass the 
skirts of a dense forest, twenty miles long — 
in ancient times the chase of the sovereign — 
and at sunset enter Nancy, about two hun- 
dred and fifty miles from Paris. 

As we drive up the principal street, our 
young advocate looks anxiously from the 
window, and we observe on the steps of a 
large house a party, who greet him with bows 
and smiles. It is his young wife, with her 
sisters and servant, bearing her infant, a few 
weeks old, whom he has not seen. The dil- 
igence stops for no one, and we drive to the 
office, whither we are soon followed by the 
party, and a most affectionate greeting takes 
place. We engage rooms at the Hotel de 
France, where we are provided with choice 
beds, fare, and attendance. In the evening 
we walk out to view the city by moonlight, 
and a charming place it is. Nancy may well 
boast its public square, its hotels, cafes, two 
beautiful fountains, a promenade planted 
with trees, many fine dwellings, a college, 
and schools. It contains 36,000 inhabitants ; 
the expenses of living are moderate; young 
men may be boarded and educated at S150 
a year, and, if we may judge from our young 
advocate, in a very satisfactory manner. Its 
air is salubrious, and were I to select a spot 
in France, to reside a year, for the education 
of my children, Nancy would, if first impres- 
sions prove correct, have the preference. 
I am yours, truly, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Nancy, France, September 2, 1843. 



LETTER XIV. 

The Rotunde — A German Student — Lnne- 
ville — French Cavalry — The ^Sauvage Inn ' 
— Sauvergne. 

Unwilmng to incur a loss of repose for 
two successive nights by pursuing our jour- 
ney, we conclude to sleep at Nancy, and re- 
pair to the diligence office to secure seats 
for the next morning. We find, as we feared, 
all the best places engaged, and are obliged 
to content ourselves with taking the four seats 
of the rotunde for our party of three. At an 
early hour we despatch breakfast, and are 
again in motion. As we pass the gates of 
the city, a student, wearing a blue frock, flop- 
ped hat, wallet, and staff, and speaking both 
French and German, overtakes the diligence 
and springs upon the step to tell us that he 
has been deceived by the driver : he was 
anxious to reach the Rhine, had applied for a 
seat in the rotunde, and learned that they 
were all engaged, but his eyes inform him 
there is one vacant ; we reply, we have en- 
gaged all, but invite him to ride with us, and 
find him a very intelligent and amusing com- 
panion. He has just taken his degree as 
bachelor of laws at Strasburg ; he gives us a 
sketch of college life and studies, and, in re- 
ply to our inquiries, informs us his expenses 
at the Royal College have been but seven 
hundred and fifty francs a year for food, in- 
struction, and clothing. He appears well ed- 
ucated, speaks the Latin fluently, and enter- 
tains us by reciting from Virgil, first with the 
German and then with the French pronunci- 
ation. He also points out objects of interest, 
and gives us the names of the towns and 
villages on the way. At St. Nicholas we no- 
tice a venerable cathedral, at Luneville, the 
ancient palace of Stanislaus, the last king of 
Poland, now the quarters of three regiments 
of cavalry. We pass the parade, and ob- 
serve the troops drawn up for review. Many 
companies of efficient men are in the field ; 
the line is forming and the officers assem- 
bling. Each private has a red blanket neat- 
ly rolled up and strapped to his back, and 
sits upon a dressed sheepskin, which covers 
his saddle and holsters. We pass, every two 



}6 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



miles, a village with red roofs, and one or 
more antique churches. The country is di- 
vided into small farms of ten to thirty acres, 
which our German friend remarks are worth 
from 500 to 1200 francs per acre;»the land is 
carefully hut not skilfully tilled, the surface 
diversified by narrow fields of millet, Indian 
corn, vines, hops, teazles, grain, lucerne, and 
clover. No fences are visible. We see, 
occasionally, a diligence or post-chaise, but 
few private' carriages of any kind, not one 
quarter part of the number we should meet 
in the most sterile part of New England. 

As we pass the village of Blamont, the 
country, which has been nearly level and 
monotonous, becomes more irregular; we 
wind up a steep ascent beyond the village, 
and notice, on rising ground, overlooking the 
road at its foot, the ruins of an old castle and 
a modern chateau, the former doubtless the 
abode of some feudal lord. We arrive at 
Sarrebourg, the village where we are to dine. 
It is a fete day, and the streets are thronged 
with visitors, and tables with refreshments 
are spread in the open air. We alight from 
the rotunde covered with dust, which, raised 
by the horses and forward wheels from the 
dry Macadamised road, has rolled in clouds 
into the windows in the rear. After trying 
the brush in vain, we enter a small apartment 
' of the inn, and find the travellers by the coupie 
provided v/ith a separate table, and no room 
for us except at a long table where the guests 
have dined and are chatting over the dessert. 
A single attendant devotes herself to the oth- 
er table, and leaves us to help ourselves from 
a few dishes of cold and indifferent food. 
The Frenchmen around the table, judging 
from our looks and language that we are Eng- 
lish, and supposing that we do not understand 
them, begin, in a provincial dialect, to criti- 
cise our appearance and impatience in a man- 
ner most unusual in France. This escapes 

ray notice, but our friend. Col. W , 

from New Orleans, listens a few moments 
in silence, becomes a little ruffled, and, turn- 
ing round to the nearest Frenchman, tells 
him, in purer French than his own, that our 
party are strangers in the country, just arrived, 
way worn and weary; that we are Ameri- 
cans, unaccustomed to submit to incivility at 



home, and coolly requests him to state what 
they find about us to amuse them. An im- 
mediate change conies over the Frenchmen, 
they are all civility, offering us every atten- 
tion; and we cannot discover whether the 
sudden change is produced by the decided 
tone and manner of our friend, or from the 
fact that we are Americans. 

We rise from our poor dinner to pay as 
usual, in bad inns, a double price. We give 
the servant all the silver we find in our pock- • 
ets, but it happens to fall a few sous short of 
the charge. Our host is not satisfied, and a 
loud murmur and discussion reaches us from 
the inner room. We fortunately discover, 
among our gold, a. solitary half franc, v^rhich 
more than squares our account, and leave, 
with no pleasant impressions, the ' Sauvage 
Inn.' 

We are now rapidly approaching the fron- 
tier, and begin to notice German names and 
signs, and a mixed dialect of French and 
German. We enter Phalersburg, a frontier 
town, strongly fortified. A grim officer, 
doubtless the survivor of many a battle, de- 
mands our passports, which he pores over, 
but cannot read, and soon returns to us. 

We proceed through a populous country, 
noticing many fruit trees, principally apples 
and plums, the biter blue with fruit, and 
borne down by its weight, growing in the 
yards and gardens of the cottages. We 
reach the extremity of the table-land, and a 
magnificent scene opens. An expanded 
valley, at least four hundred feet below us, 
undulating, fertile, and highly cultivated, 
with many villages and church-spires; a 
range of blue mountains in the distance, be- 
yond the Pthine ; on our right, spurs of the 
Alps on the borders of Switzerland ; Sau- 
vergTie, a large town, beloAv us, and a short 
distance beyond it a range of wooded emi- 
nences overlooking the valley, crowned by 
ruins of castles and convents. 

The sky is clear and the scene most exhil- 
arating. As we pass the town, a light wag- 
on, like our own country vehicles, follows 
the diligence. A young lad is driving two 
beautiful girls without bonnets, but Avilh their 
hair tastefully arranged, and holding parasols 
to protect them from the sun. As our horses 



STRASBURG. 



27 



walk up a slight ascent, we bow, and ask 
tliera the name of the ruins. With a smile 
and graceful bow, one of them replies, They 
are the ruins of Sauvergne. . Our epeied in- 
creases, and we soon lose sight of this most 
pleasing feature in our landscape. In the 
villages we notice all the gayety of a fete 
day, music and dancing in booths, and in the 
open air ; we descend a mountain defile, 
cross a rich plain, and enter Strasburg 
through a triple line of fortifica,"tion, surren- 
dering our passports at the gates, and lind 
excellent apartments and good beds at the 
Hotel de Ville de Paris. 
Yours ever, 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



StiKisburg, on the Rhine, Sept. 3, 1843. 



LETTER XV. 

French Troops ' and Music — Cathedral and 
Lutheran Church — Monuments — Clock — 
Bridge of Boats — Baden-Baden. 

The windows of our chambers at Stras- 
burg open sidewise to the floor, and are 
hung with figured muslin. The floor is 
waxed, the apartments large and airy, with 
beds and glasses superior to those of our best 
hotels, and yet our rooms are by no means 
the best : tho most eligible were occupied, 
and no others were vacant on our arrival. 
We retire early to rest. At the dawn of day 
we are aroused by martial music and the 
tramp of soldiers. Two regiments, with full 
bands of music, and ofTicers in unif6rm, are 
marching to the ramparts to take their posts 
for the day ; they pass directly beneath us, 
moving with precision, and appearing to 
great advantage. The music is most inspir- 
ing. These troops are part of the permanent 
garrison of the post. Eight thousand men 
(more than the whole army of the United 
States, dispersed along five thousand miles of 
frontier) are in profound peace stationed here 
to guard this single fortress. 

Paris itself is a garrison town ; within the 
walls are 40,000 regular troops, besides as 
many National Guard.s, and nearly as many 



mora soldiers of the line in the environs. 
May the progress of civilization and im- 
provement soon relieve this great country 
from these costly burdens. 

After breakfast, we engage a valet de 
place, add visit St. Thomas Church, a Pro- 
testant place of worship. We admire the 
splendid monument, in marble, to the brave 
Marshal Saxe, erected by a grateful monarch 
to the Hero of Fontenoy, Semper victor, as 
tho tablet tells us. A marble figure of France 
is crowning her hero with laurels, whila 
Death, in marble, extends his bony arm from 
a cloak to demand his viptim. 

In a recess, we find in a glass coffui the 
embalmed body of a duke of Nassau, who 
died four centuries since. The features are 
well preserved ; the dress has been renewed, 
excepting the shoes, which are the same, 
with high heels, thick soles, and toes as 
square as tho present fashion. Near him is 
his daughter, in the silk drsss she once wore ; 
her remains are less perfect ; her silken locks 
have parted from her head, and a ring still 
sparkles on her withered hand. 

In the public squares, we view the monu- 
ments of Kleber and Dessaix, two of Napo- 
leon's generals, natives of this region, and a 
beautiful monument to Oberlin. 

We approach the venerable cathedral, be- 
gun in the thirteenth century, and still unfin- 
ished, the base decaying while the top is in- 
complete. It is, however, a noble structure, 
450 feet high by 350 feet in length, and 137 
feet in width. Its front is ornamented with 
nearly five hundred figures, almost as large 
as life, standing in niches, and elaborately 
carved in stone. The windows are admi- 
rably painted. 

At 12, M. we join a throng of gentlemen 
and ladies, to see the far-famed clock of the 
cathedral. This remarkable piece of me- 
chanism is nearly fifty feet high, and orna- 
mented with various figures of the size of 
life. At 12 an angel strikes the hour; Time 
turns the hour glass ; the Twelve Apostles 
pass in procession before the Saviour, who 
places his hands on their heads as they bow 
to him in succession, and a cockerel flaps 
' his wings and crows so naturally, that ray 
j friends insist they hear an ans-wer from the 



28 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



street; various other motions take place, in- 
dicating the places of the earth and the plan- 
ets, and, in an ob.scure corner of the gallery, 
i3 a figure of the artist, watching this great 
labor of his life. 

We visit a shop devoted to the manufac- 
ture of the celebrated Pat4 de Foie Gras, 
and while our companion. Col. W., makes a 
purchase, we read an order for a liberal sup- 
ply, just received from New York. 

Weary of travelling by diligence, we en- 
gage a private carriage for Baden-Baden, one 
of the most fashionable summer resorts of 
Germany, and cross the Rhine by a bridge of 
boats into the Grand Duchy of Baden. 

This is one of those small German states 
which send out an annual svrarm of emi- 
grants to America, and which, in ancient 
times, formed a part of the Palatinate of the 
Rhine. Our carriage draws up at a public 
building on the eastern side of the river, 
which answers the double purpose of a cus- 
tom and toll-house. In ihe room appropria- 
ted to the latter, a young and pretty girl 
sells tickets to pass the bridge, and talks low 
Dutch -with great volubility. The harsh di- 
alect, however, seems to distort her pretty 
mouth as she speaks. An old custom-house 
officer pries into our trunks, but finds nothing 
for duty except our friend's recent purchase 
of the Paii de Foie Gras, worth, perhaps, four 
or five francs, of which he makes a formal 
entry, and charges a few kreutzers for the 
duty. We ride on across rich intervales, 
like those on the Connecticut, a river which 
resembles the Rhine at this distance from 
the ocean. The crops are hemp, tobacco, 
maize, vines, artichokes, grass, and potatoes. 
We stop at an ancient inn, where the driver 
feeds his horses with rye bread, cut into thin 
elices, and a postman or courier, in uniform, 
high boots, and immense epauleta, chats 
over a bottle of wine with the landlord's 
daughter. We resume our seats in the car- 
riage, observing, as we proceed, that the 
wagons, harnesses, pumps, houses, and imple- 
ments, are all ruder than with us : the wo- 
men coarsely clad, and uncouth in their ap- 
pearance, and often in the field wielding the 
hoe, rake, or sickle. They wear no bonnets, 
but a black bow or crape around the hair. 



The men usually wear three-cornered cocked 
hats and white gaiters. 

The horses are sleek and well-conditioned, 
but we often notice cows harnessed to carts. 

At seven p. m. we pass a spot where our 
driver informs us a Russian and German fell 
the week before, in a duel, which has excited 
much interest through Germany. We soon 
after arrive at Baden-Baden, a delightful 
place, situated in a beautiful valley, much 
like Chester, among our Berkshire hills. 

We drive through a pleasant street, planted 
with trees, and bordered by gardens and 
tasteful residences, to several hotels, w^hich 
we find overflowing. We alight at the new 
Hotel d' Europe, where a suite of rooms, re- 
served for Lord Ward, who is detained on 
the way, receives us. The house is large, 
commodious, and in excellent taste, four sto- 
ries high, and apparently 100 feet by 60. 
The entrance is at the side, and in the cen- 
tre is an area, perhaps thirty feet square, for 
the staircase and galleries. A flight of steps, 
at least ten feet wide, and lined with pots of 
myrtles and other flowers, ascends, with a 
gradual rise of four inches to the step, to a 
platform, from which you mount by a few 
steps to other platforms, on the right and left, 
adorned with growing flowers, from which 
you again turn to the right and left and as- 
cend to the second story by wide and easy 
flights of steps. The ascent is so easy and 
pleasant that you rise twenty feet almost 
without perceiving it. The rooms are large 
and well furnished. The host all courtesy 
and attention — the very pink of landlords. 
We sit down to a choice repast, which we 
suppose has been prepared for ' mi lord An- 
glais,' and partake of soup, fresh salmon, 
beef with trufiles, cutlets, chickens, bird pie, 
partridges, sallad of superior quality, pud- 
dings, richly flavored with vanilla, fruit, 
claret, and champagne ; a dinner which 
would have cost guineas in England, and 
which is here furnished for a few francs. 

We visit the beautiful pump-room, built in 
the style of a Grecian temple, and the con- 
versation-room, in a portion of which we hear 
the music of a ball ; in other parts observe 
faro and roulette tables. Here silver and 
gold change hands with celerity. Many 



A GERMAN WATERING-PLACE. 



29 



gentlemen and some ladies retire with empty 
purses, while one, more fortunate than the 
rest, in a few minutes leaves with winnings 
to the amount of 6000 francs. Neither good 
nor ill fortune appears to disturb the equa- 
nimity of those presiding at the tables. The 
games proceed, and. under the sanction and 
patronage of government, a taste is fostered 
for gambling which must have demoralizing 
tendencies. I am yours, truly, 

M.-VSSACHUSETTS. 

Baden-Baden^ September 5, 1843. 



LETTER XVL 

Baden-Baden — American Friends — Rastadt 
— Palace of the Margraves — Trophies and 
Tapestry — Hunting Hall — Promenade of 
Carlsrhue — Rail-way to Heidelberg. 

After an early and quite agreeable walk 
this morning, through the pleasant streets 
of Baden-Baden, by gardens, flowers, taste- 
ful houses, and fine old trees, we visit 
the pump-room, and taste the mineral waters 
which come boiling from the spring. We 
glance at the old village, a perfect contrast 
to the new, and are obliged to admit that in 
scenery, architecture, and good taste, this 
German watering-plsece far surpasses our 
Saratoga. Here assemble the gentry and 
nobles of Europe, from France, Switzerland, 
Prussia, the Netherlands, Russia, Austria, 
and England, and even America contributes 
her portion ; for in our walks we meet two 
Boston friends, making the tour of the Conti- 
nent, with whom we breakfast, and talk of 
our own happy home — of Boston, its enter- 
prise and public spirit, its iron ways piercing 
the interior ; of the new buildings, fifteen 
hundred of which are this season springing 
up within the city and environs, to receive its 
increasing population, a growth which would 
acarcely be credited in Europe. 

We purch2ise a guide-book for the Rhine, 
and take leave of our friends and obliging 
host, who provides us with a carriage and 
horses for Carlsrhue. On our way we pass 
a military encampment, and, soon after, Ras- 



tadt. This ancient town is famous for two 
treaties mads within its walls. As we enter, 
we observe laborers drawing, by hand, earth 
and stone, in light carts, running on grooves, 
and busy on ramparts, which Austria and 
Prussia, combining with the other States of 
Germany, are raising to repel any inroads 
from France. Thus, in the centre of civ- 
ilized Europe, France, on one side of the 
Rhine, is maintaining armies to defend her 
frontier fortresses, and Germany, on the oth- 
er, is lavishing millions on counter fortifica- 
tions. Instead of this vast outlay to main- 
tain force against force, how much more 
humane and philosophic would it be to lio-ht- 
en the burdens of the subject, to introduce 
' works of amelioration,' to alleviate the la- 
bors of the females, and refine the people ! 

Within the walls we discover an ancient 
palace, once the residence of the Margraves 
of Baden. It forms three sides of a hollow 
square, which lies between the main build- 
ing and the street. The extent, from the end 
of one wing to the other, not far from six 
hundred feet. We pass a sentinel at the 
gate, and are shown through the palace by a 
female. The basement is appropriated to 
carriages. In the story above, we examine 
a suite of halls and saloons, from twenty to 
fifty feet square. 

We are struck with a hall hung with the 
trophies, taken from the Turk by the Mar- 
giave Lewis and Prince Eugene; namely 
sabres, bows, arrows, shields, horse-tails 
banners, saddles, trappings, and the armor 
worn by the Margrave during the war. 

We proceed through a saloon encircled 
and panelled with Japan ware, doubtless 
brought over land from China. 

A cabinet, Avhere Marshal Villiera and 
Prince Eugene signed their treaty. A saloon 
richly ornamented with porcelain. 

The State Chamber of the Margraves, in 
which the second Copgress was held, hung 
with Gobelin tapestry, and containing also 
a bed in which Napoleon had slept. 

The theatre, the tapestry saloon, the recep- 
tion hall, and many others — with vaulted 
painted, and gilded ceiling3,and marble pilas- 
ters, — nearly all hung with large family pic- 
tures: some purporting to date in 1100, and 



30 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



representing warriors and statesmen in rich 
armor and ermine ; and their wives, daugh- 
ters, and courts, in full dress. In one room 
we ob.-ierve portraits of three beautiful Circas- 
sians, the originals of which were presented 
to the Margrave Lewis b}' the Tnrk ; a do- 
nation, as our guide informs us, by no means 
acceptable to the Margrave's lady I 

Above are sleeping-rooms and a large 
hall, from which are suspended the spoils of 
the chase — immense antlers, and pictures of 
sportsmen shooting deer and wild bears, as 
they are driven into lakes. 

Leaving Rastadt, we drive through a plea- 
sant country to Carlsrhue, the road widening 
to a breadth of an hundred feet as we ap- 
proach the city, and for two mdles from the 
gates lined on each side with two rows of 
ancient overarching trees, forming a delight- 
ful and favorite prom.enade for the citizens. 
Such provision for the comfort and pleasure 
of the citizens is quite common in Germany, 
and may be copied with advantage in Amer- 
ica. On our way, we pass a number of 
well-dressed young men, who, to our sur- 
prise, take off their hats and run beside our 
carriage, bowing and asking charity. Sup- 
posing from their appearance they have no 
need of alms, we decline to give ; and, as 
their importunity continues, w-e take off our 
hats and bow to them in return, upon which 
they leave us. We subsequently learn they 
are apprentices, compelled, by the usage of 
the country, to travel for several years from 
town to towD; to extend their knowledge be- 
fore they begin business, and that the kind- 
hearted Germans frequently aid them on the 
road. 

We leave our trunks at the rail-way sta- 
tion, and drive through a pleasant street to a 
hotel to dine, and, after dinner, walk to the 
station, which occupies a large area outside 
the city gates. Here a large engine-house, 
with a vaulted roof, i^ in the course of con- 
struction, with other spacious buildings for 
freight and passengers, all of a showy and 
costly character. The rail is of the bridge, 
or inverted U pattern, like the new rail 
of the Baltimore and Ohio line, and laid 
on longitudinal sills. The engines and 
cars are all short, and of the English pat- 



tern. The first class cars are like a gen- 
tleman's carriage. The second class have 
glass windows and haircloth seats. The 
third class have covers and seats. The 
fourth class are like open freight-cars, with 
rails, against which passengers may lean. 
The conductors wear wallets, in which they 
carry tickets, and keys to lock in the travel- 
lers. 

Our Iri-.in conveys four first class passen- 
gers, who pay two and a half cents per mile ; 
tv/enty second class, paying one and three 
quarters cent per mile ; and nearly forty 
third and fourth class, who pay, on an aver- 
age, about one cent per mile. Our fuel is 
coke ; the stations permanent, but too expen- 
sive. On our way we pass a long train of 
passengers, nearly all of whom are third and 
fourth class — classes which furnish the 
principal revenue of the line. And here let 
me notice, that the omnibus fare, from the 
rail-way to the hotel, is usually in Fraiice 
and Germany but eight cents* of our curren- 
cy for each passenger, with his baggage, and 
there is little doubt, if similar rates were in- 
troduced here, it would diminish that sharp- 
ness of competition so annoying to every 
one who travels. 

The route of the rail-way, from Carlsrhue 
to Heidelberg, is across an intervale countr}', 
and eminently favorable. Our speed is 
about twenty miles per hour, and at eight 
p. M. we reach in safety the ' Hotel of the 
Court of Baden.' 

Yours, truly, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Heidelberg, September 5, 1843. 



LETTER XVn. 

The Castle of Heidelberg — Library — The 
Bergstrasse Road — Barmstadt — Frank- 
fort — The Rail-road — Mayence. 

After a refreshing sleep at Heidelberg 
Ave rise to an early breakfast, and take a 
carriage for the ruins of the ancient Castle, 
climbing up a steep acclivity between 
blocks of small houses, many of which 



THE BERGSTRASSE. 



31 



have in front an image of the Virgin. The 
ca.stle is perched upon a steep hill nearly 
four hundred feet above the town, which lies 
at its foot. The loftiest tower is nearly one 
hundred feet high, and the walls and whole 
interior are a magnificent mass of ruins. 
Fire has destroyed the timber and the roofs. 
Every thing of wood has perished, mines 
and cannon have shaken or battered down 
portions of its towers and defences, but the 
relics of its grandeur and strength still 
remain, and the masonry in many cases 
bids defiance alike to art and to time. 

The materials of this castle would have 
sufficed to build at least thirty structures like 
our Stale House in Boston. We wander for 
an hour by the remains of the palace, the 
chapel, dungeon, towers, and vast kitchens. 
teiTaces. gardens, and outworks. We exam- 
ine a huge fragment of the v/all, which, 
when undermined, slid down entire, like a 
solid rock. We admire some exquisite de- 
signs in stone in the front of the palace. 
The construction of such a pile m.ust have 
been a heavy tax on the poor people of the 
Duchy. 

We conclude to lake the Bergslrasse load 
for Frankfort, and engage a barouche and 
two horses for our party ; and, while our dri- 
ver is preparing our equipage, we visit the 
celebrated Library. Rumor has informed 
me that it contains 136,000 bound books, 
but my doubts are not solved until "I enter 
and examine the sixty-five folio volumes of 
catalogues, and walk through its exten- 
sive halls and alcoves. I must verify the 
rumor. 

Beside books, this establishment contains 
many valuable relics and curiosities ; we are 
shown beautiful manuscripts on parchment, 
written between 800 and 1500, a translation 
of Isaiah, by Martin Luther, in his own 
handwriting ; many illuminated volumes 
printed in 1400 and 1500 : many ancient 
English works, and all the modern of value. 
Among others we observe an ancient Eng- 
lish volume, purporting to be a life of Car- 
dinal Vv^oolsey; also, the speeches in Par- 
liament on the abolition of the Star Cham- 
ber. This valuable library is accessible to 
seven hundred students, and to all the resi- 



dents in the place, who may take out books 
at 27leasure. 

At eleven a. m. we drive over a fine 
bridge, decorated with statues, and enter 
the Bergstrasse, one of the most pictur- 
esque routes in Europe; the road winds 
along the borders of extensive intervales at 
the base of a range of mountains resembl- 
ing the Green Mountains of Vermont, cloth- 
ed half-way up with vines and crowned 
with forests ; the country below most lu.xu- 
riant. We pass alternate fields of grain, 
Indian corn, hemp, turnips, potatoes, grass 
and tobacco; the latter, both in size and 
abundance, suflicient to excite the alarm of 
a Virginian. We see few cattle or horses. 
The population seems to be entirely agricul- 
tural ; the females at work with the males in 
the fields, without bonnets or shoes, and their 
companions wear three-cornered hats and 
gaiters. At Heppenheim we lunch on bread 
and cheese, and reach DarnMtadt to dine, 
where we refresh ourselves with a glass of 
sparkling hockheimer. In the cofice-room 
where we dine we notice many respectable 
men, whom we take to be merchants, enter- 
ing and calling each for a half bottle of 
Rhenish wine, which is placed on a small 
table. The visitors, walking up and down 
the room engaged in conversation, occasion- 
ally stop at their tables to sip a little of their 
favorite beverage. 

Our road continues nearly a dead level to 
Frankfort, and, at the present price of iron in 
England, might, at an expense of SSOOOper 
mile, be converted into a very efficient rail- 
way. 

At nine p. m. we reach Frankfort, after a 
pleasant drive of fifty miles, at a very mod- 
erate expense. The city is full of strangers, 
assembling for the annual Fair ; and with 
much difficulty, after visiting several houses, 
we secure apartments for the night at a prin- 
cipal hotel. We take our coffee in a spacious 
hall orcoftee-room, where we see ladies and 
gentlemen sipping coff"ee, completely envel- 
oped in tobaccb smoke. We find our host and 
his attendants speak English, and are very 
courteous; and after a night's repose rise at 
five A. M. to take the rail-v,^ay for Ma.yence. 
The station for Frankfort is out of the 



32 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



city. As we approach, we observe an ele- 
gant stone building, at least three stories 
high, and two hundred feet long, with a 
flower-garden and carriage-way lying be- 
tween it and the highway. 

The omnibus deposits us, with our com- 
panions and trunks, in the open air at a 
small door, on the principal front, within 
which every article of our baggage is to be 
weighed, and if in excess over fifty pounds, 
the overplus is to be paid for as freight. 
When this process is completed you enter 
a ticket-office and purchase a ticket, and 
then follow your baggage through the build- 
ing and across an open court to long sheds 
in the rear, running at right angles from the 
main building. In these the cars are sta- 
tioned; and y-ou discover, to your sur- 
prise, that the main edifice ia for clerks, 
not passengers, and is a useless bar- 
rier between the omnibus and the cars ; for 
the expensgr and annoyance of weighing 
and moving the baggage must equal ail that 
is gained for the freight of ii, to say nothing 
of the exposure of the passengers to the 
•weather. 

The rates of fare are moderate, the char- 
ges for the first class passengers about the 
same as on our roads ; for the second, third, 
and fourth classes, much lower. We have 
but three first class passengers, while there 
are six cars well filled with the other classes, 
pride yielding to thrift. The country is 
populous, the soil light ; we notice flax, or- 
chards, mowing, and less tobacco than yes- 
terday. We accomplish our twenty miles 
in an hour and five minutes, and drive across 
a bridge of boats to the steamer at May- 
€1106. Yours, truly, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mayence, Sept 7, 1843. 



LETTER XVIIl. 

The Rhine — A Prussi<zn Steamer — Coblentz 
— Cologne. 

The Prussian steamer Konig, in which 
we embark at Mayence, is 184 feet long, 21 



I feet beam, 4 feet draft of water, and 120 
horse-power, her wheels 18 feet in diameter, 
and her revolutions 28 per minute. Her 
commander is a Frenchman, who courteous- 
ly gives me these particulars, and assures 
me she has shown a speed of 21 miles 
per hour with the advantage of the cur- 
rent, and that he has made the run from 
Mayence to Cologne, 150 English miles, be- 
tween 8 A. M. and 5 p. m., of which time 
nearly two hours were consumed in stops. 
Such is the rapidity of the current, that the 
descending boat is obliged to turn entirely 
round when she stops to land or receive 
passengers. The model of this steamer ia 
beautiful, but the room extremely limited. 
The engine and boilers are below, as in 
English steamers, and occupy at least a 
third of the vessel. An after and forward 
cabin of moderate size are alone appropriated 
to the passengers, and there is nothing above 
the main deck except a light awning. With 
100 passengers, the number this morning, 
she is apparently crowded. Contrast this 
vessel for a moment with another low-pres- 
sure boat, the noble Knickerbocker, on the 
Hudson. A length of 330 feet. The cabin 
a grand saloon, of nearly the same length, 
lined with berths and state-rooms. On the 
main deck, a long and beautiful Ladies' cabin, 
and ranges of state-rooms, with ample room 
for freight. Above, another fine saloon, in 
length at least 200 feet, with state-rooms on 
either side, terminating at one end in a long 
covered promenade and in a gallery at the 
other, and above all an open deck, com- 
manding a view of the scenery on either 
side. In such a steamer 1000 passengers 
are easily accommodated by day, and at 
least 500 may sleep at night, moving at a 
speed of twenty miles per hour. In river 
steamers we as yet have no rivals. 

But in this glance at one of my hobbies, 
steam navigation, let me not forget the Rhine, 
that noble stream, associated with so many 
events, and of which so much has been said 
and sung. At the point where we embark 
it resembles the Hudson at Albany, and is 
not far from 1000 feet wide. At the rapids 
in the highlands, below, it occasionally con- 
tracts to 400 feet, and dashes on amid whirl- 



THE RHINE. 



33 



pools and rapids with a fearful speed, sweep- 
ing in a devious course around the bases of the 
mountains. The morning is delightful, and 
tlie changing scenery most exhilarating. 

We pass in rapid succession the beautiful 
and extensive Chateau of the Duke of 
Nassau, at Biberich. the ruined Castle of 
Erbach, the decaying city of Ingleheim — 
once the residence of the great Charle- 
magne — and are soon among the highlands 
of the Rhine. Here hills, not quite as high 
and more rounded than the highlands of the 
Hudson, press in upon the river. They are 
terraced and planted with grape-vines to the 
summit, which on the highest is crowned 
with shrubbery ; they approach so closely to 
the stream, that they leave barely room for 
a narrow causeway, or tow-path, on the bor- 
ders of the river. Deep, narrow, and often 
fertile valleys open between them, through 
•which, as we rush onward with the combin- 
ed power of steam and water, we catch 
glimpses of the landscape beyond. Oc- 
casional brooks and rivulets pour in their 
tribute through these valleys, and, clustering 
arotlnd their mouths are towns and villages, 
with their ancient walls still standing. On 
almost every eminence, is the ruin of some 
crumbling castle, a relic of feudal times, 
connected with which is some ancient tale 
or legend. Nature has invested the Hudson 
with more grandeur, but on either side of 
the Rhine is a picture, touched I may say 
by the old masters, at least one hundred 
miles in extent, which, by its beauty and va- 
riety, its monuments and its associations, 
speaks to the heart. 

We pass the celebrated vineyards of 
Johannisberg, Rudesheira, Asmanhausen, 
and Hockheim, (whose juice is not unknown 
on our side of the Atlantic, and one of 
which claims Prince Metternich as its pro- 
prietor,) and we single out, as most worthy of 
admiration, the castles of Rheinfels, Furs- 
tenburg, Gutenfels, and Schonberg. Stolzen- 
fels, a little above the mouth of the blue 
Moselle, has been restored to all its pristine 
splendor. A few years since this extensive 
ruin was offered for sale at an hundred 
thalers. It was purchased by the heir ap- 
parent of Prussia, and has been entirely re- 

3 



newed, and rebuilt, and now presents a most 
imposing appearance. A few miles below, 
opposite the mouth of the Moselle, is the 
great fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, the Gib- 
raltar of Germany, upon which have been 
expended the millions recovered from France 
by Prussia. 

Between Bingen and Coblentz, as we pass 
the heights of St. Gear, a pistol is discharg- 
ed from the right bank, which echoes like 
thunder through the hills. We pass the. 
point where the Prussians cried out with 
enthusiasm, 'the Rhine, the Rhine,' as 
they suddenly came upon it, on their way to 
France, under Blucher. As we approach 
Coblentz, the view is most beautiful ; on the 
left is the city with its churches, spires, and 
other structures, and green hills in the back- 
ground J opposite, is Ehrenbreitstein, with 
its towers, fosses, ramparts, and gardens ris- 
ing from the w^ater to the summit of a high 
eminence. Between them is a bridge of 
boats. Beyond the bridge are two sailing 
vessels, with all sail set to a fair wind, strug- 
gling to ascend the stream; beliind us is 
an immense raft, acres in extent, floating 
down, and another steamer following in our 
wake. We approach the bridge with winged 
speed, and my wonder is, how we are to 
pass it, when suddenly a section resting on 
three boats, gives way, and, turning on one 
end, as on a pivot, swings round with the force 
of the current until it floats at right angles 
with the bridge, and opens a passage at least 
150 feet wide. In a few miimtes the various 
craft are through, and the breach closes by 
the power of the windlass, and other mech- 
anism. Such a bridge, thus arranged, would 
not interfere with the navigation of the 
Hudson. 

Steam navigation is fast increasing on the 
Rhine. From fifteen to twenty steamers, 
in summer, daily stop at Cologne. 

Our dinner in the steamer vividly reminds 
me of that so happily described by Miss 
Sedgwick, in her travels, with the exception 
that we keep no ladies waiting. We find a 
German dinner is a matter of grave consid- 
eration ; a preface of soup, successive chap- 
ters of fish, beef, cutlets, turkeys, game, 
, spinage, lettuce, puddings, pastry, and 



34 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



goats-milk cheese, with an appendix of 
Rhenish wines, apricots, pears, plums, con- 
fectionary, and coffee. Among our com- 
panions in the steamer, at least twenty are 
English, and four or five Americans ; op- 
posite to us, at our table, sits Mr. H., an 
English gentleman, who has lost his eye- 
sight, and is returning with his family from 
a tour on the Continent. Mr. H. has been 
minister abroad, is very intelligent and affa- 
ble, and grateful for some little attentions 
which we cheerfully render, as he seems to 
be occasionally forgotten by his companions. 
Upon the deck is their travelling carriage, 
entirely encircled by trunks, or rather a 
huge trunk itself, with a case inside for the 
family ; the driver's box, the top, the bottom, 
the seats, the box for the footman, in the 
rear, are all cases for clothing. We reach ) 
the old and far-famed city of Cologne at five 
p. M., paying the very reasonable price of 
seventeen francs each for our fare, and secure 
excellent rooms, most tastefully furnished, at 
a hotel overlooking the Rhine.. 

Yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Cologne, September 8, 1843. 



LETTER XIX. 

Cologne — The Cathedral — Theatre — Rail- 
V)ay to Aix-la-Chapelle — Annoying Deten- 
tion — the Great Rail-way of Germany — 
Verviers — and the Cloth Manufacture. 

On our arrival at Cologne we engage a 
carriage, and valet de place, with a view to 
pee the objects of interest, and are accompa- 
nied by a New York gentleman, who joined 
xis on the Rhine. The cathedral is an un- 
finished structure, begun on an immense 
scale ; but a small portion is complete ; the 
part completed, however, is very imposing. 
On one of the towers still stands a crane, to 
show the idea of finishing it is not aban- 
doned; and a number of workmen, in the 
employ of the Prussian government, are 
slowly progressing with repairs and ad- 
ditions. We observe many ancient churches, 



and some fine private houses, but the streets 
are narrow and confined. The population 
is now 70,000, and less than in former days, 
when troops of pilgrims came here to visit 
the relics and shrines of the Kings of Co- 
logne. Its sun, however, is not set forever, it 
is about to become a great mart of trade. 
A line of rail-way is nearly finished, which 
next month will be complete, and bring it 
within twelve hours of Antwerp, and Ostend. 
If skilfully managed, this line will be the 
great route for merchandise and passengers 
between the sea and the centre of Germa- 
ny ; Cologne will then become a great de- 
pot of commerce. 

As we return to the hotel, the coachman 
cracks his whip, the valet dismounts, and 
our landlord, opening the door of the car- 
riage, very politely offers his arm to assist us 
to alight. Col. W receives this atten- 
tion as the custom of the country, but our 
friend from Worcester county, reared in the 
plain republican habits of the interior of 
Massachusetts, whispers, that he cannot 
submit to such obsequiousness, and, to the 
surprise of the landlord, springs by him to 
the ground without touching the steps. 

In the evening we visit the Theatre. The 
performances are short but spirited. A 
comic piece is acted, in which there is much 
pantomime, and in which I easily follow the 
performers, and am struck with the similar- 
ity between our own language and the Ger- 
man. The tickets to the best seats are less 
than half a dollar, and the play is over at 
the hour of nine. 

At an early hour in the morning of Sep- 
tember 8, we drive to the rail-way station 
and take the cars for Aix-la-Chapelle; the dis- 
tance is forty-three miles. The station is like 
those I have described, but in other respects 
the rail-way resembles the Boston and Wor- 
cester ; the rail, the curvature, and the coun- 
try remind me of our line to Worcester. 
The cars are of three classes ; — the first 
class padded and glazed ; the second 
covered, cushioned, and curtained ; the 
third class is open, and supplied with 
seats. The charges are, in American curren- 
cy, $1.44 for the first class, i|1.08 forthesec- 
ond, and $0,72 for the third. In our train we 



PRUSSIAN DILIGENCES. 



35 



have 10 first class passengers and 70 second 
and third, and the average price paid is not far 
from one dollar for each passenger. We pass 
over a rolling and sometimes broken coun- 
try, producing oats, grass, and potatoes. We 
observe several large cuts, embankments, and 
tunnels, with severe gradients. At one point 
our engine, of a light English pattern, near- 
ly stops from lack of power. We notice 
guards at all the road-crossings, which are on 
a level, and reach Aix-la-Chapelle in two 
hours and three quarters from the time we 
left Cologne. 

The entrance to Aix-la-Chapelle is very 
pleasing ; the rail-way descends rapidly by a 
long and magnificent viaduct ; and the city, 
with its spires, turrets, and white buildings 
appears embosomed in a beautiful country of 
alternate swells and valleys of the most 
vivid green. The depot is a large building 
three stories high, but presents nothing wor- 
thy of comment, or of copying. 

On our an-ival at Aix-la-Chapelle, we find 
the diligence for Belgium is not to leave for 
two hours, and suppose we have ample time 
at our disposal to ride through and examine 
this beautiful city ; but to avoid detention 
we determine first to secure our seats, and 
for this purpose drive to the office of the 
diligence. We arrive there, and are deposi- 
ted with our trunks in a hollow square, and 
find ourselves encircled by at least an hun- 
dred passengers, and their baggage. 

A scene occurs it is almost impossible to 
describe. We apply for seats in the couple, 
but are told that we cannot have ihem until 
our trunks are weighed and certified. We dis- 
cover in one corner a scale surrounded by 
trunks, and a crowd of travellers, each 
urgent for priority ; a scale which is to 
receive successively, trunks, valises, boxes, 
and carpet-bags without number. We di- 
vide our party into four detachments, one 
to see that every thing is carried to the 
scale, one to take the certificate of each ar- 
ticle, another to see they are not separated 
afterwards, and a fourth to engage if possi- 
ble 3 private carriage. After many delays 
our articles are weighed, but some mistake 
is made by the weigh-master, and a part 
must be weighed again ; at length the certi- 



ficates are signed, and we apply for our tick- 
ets, but are told we can have no places except 
in the rotundc. Bui we have tried this once 
on a dusty road, and we urge, that we have 
spoken early for the coupec, and if we cannot 
have it will look for a private carriage. At 
this moment our detachment. No. 4, reports, 
that he has found a private carriage ; when, 
to our dismay, five or six porters seize our 
trunks and cai-pet-bags, and bear them away 
to as many different diligences, alike heed- 
less of remonstrance, reproof, and resistance. 
In this posture of affairs, the ticket-seller 
informs us, that he will give us a carryall, 
and assures us, that we may rely on finding 
our baggage safe at the custom-house on 
the frontier. As soon as we are free, at the 
last moment, we are told our passports must 
be inspected, and two of us engage a guide- 
and hurry to the bureau of the police. 
While we are gone, although it still lacks 
ten minutes of the hour for our departure, 
our coachman mounts the box,-give8 one of 
the three seats of our carriage to a lady and 
her child, insists that he cannot wait, and 
begins to drive onward. A douceur of a few 
francs induces him to&top. We fortunately 
arrive in a few moments, and are on our 
way before the appointed hour, and thus, in 
this annoying manner, we waste two hours, 
and lose the privilege of seeing Aix-la- 
Chapelle. 

We reach the custom-house on the fron- 
tier ; the diligences and other carriages are 
drawn up in a line, the trunks and packages 
are arranged in front of the office, opened 
and inspected by a very courteous set of 
officials, but one of value, the property of" 
Col. W — ^ containing specie, letters of cred- 
it, and important papers, is missing. The 
other trunks are replaced, our coachman re- 
fuses to wait, mounts his box, cracks his 
whip, and begins to move onward. We are 
compelled to submit ; and, on attempting to 
enter, find another passenger has been ad- 
mitted, and has taken one of our seats. The 
new-comer, however, on reading the expres- 
sion of our faces, retires to the back seat 
and holds the child, and we are again in 
motion. Amid all our perplexities, however, 
our attention is drawn to the magnificent 



36 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



•works of the new rail-way from Aix-la- 
Chapelle to Belgium ; it crosses a broken 
country by tunnels and viaducts on a gigan- 
tic scale ; the designs are striking, and the 
masonry of the most massive and endur- 
ing character ; the work, admirably execut- 
ed, promises to last for centuries. Great 
pains have been taken with the high em- 
bankments, which are faced or paved with 
stone, to preserve them. We arrive at 
Verviers, and determine to stop there for re- 
dress. We demand the trunk at the bureau 
of the diligence, and exhibit Col. W.'s re- 
ceipt for it. The official shakes his head, 
and tells us he can do nothing, that we must 
send back a messenger to recover it. We 
ask, if the Company will do this, or make us 
any remuneration for our delay. To this he 
t"briefly replies, ' nothing ;' 'that we must pay 
.oiarselves ; that he is but an agent, and the 
King of Prussia owns the diligences.' We 
;talk of the police, and of the law, but he 
hears us unmoved. We tell the coachman 
-to take us to the hotel, as we shall stop ; he 
drives us a few steps and charges us for it 
four francs extra ! 

We inquire, if there is an Englishman or 
an American at Verviers, and find a country- 
man from New York, engaged in the manu- 
facture of cloth. He says, the law and the 
police will not help us, that we must 
consent to be ^ victimized,' and at his sugges- 
tion we send back an express. In the 
course of the night he returns with the miss- 
ing trunk, which reached the custom-house 
by a &low diligence a few minutes after our 
impatient coachman hurried us away. Thus 
much for Royal diligences ! 

We have no reason to regret our detention 
at Verviers ; our inn is excellent, and our 
American friend walks with us through the 
town, which is increasing, and in size and 
appearance resembles our Lowell; he also 
conducts us through a large manufactory of 
broadcloth. He informs us, that cloth is 
made cheaper here than in any part of the 
world; that wages are from half a franc to 
a franc per day ; that the operatives live 
upon bread and coffee, and know not the 
taste of meat ; that cloth, better than any we 
can import under our present tariff, is made 



here for $2,2.5 per yard ; that 20,000 opera- 
tives are busily employed in making it in the 
place and its vicinity, where an abundance 
of coal is found for the steam-engine ; that 
several new and extensive factories are in 
progress, and many of the proprietors have 
acquired immense wealth. 

The pale faces of the operatives attest 
their meagre diet; the master prospers, but 
the servants pine ; they are, however, a kind- 
hearted and affectionate race, all Catholics. 
A week before our arrival the Avife of a pro- 
prietor had died, and for days following the 
females at their work were chanting requi- 
ems and hymns for the repose of her soul. 
I remain, as ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Verviers, September 8, 1843. 



LETTER XX. 

The Rail-ways of Belgium — 
Vesdre — Liege — Malines ■ 
try in Motion. 



■ Valley of the 
• A whole Coun- 



DuRiNG our stay at Verviers we visit the 
rail-way station at the present terminus of 
the great Belgian chain. The line has been 
recently finished to this point, and the per- 
manent buildings are still incomplete ; but 
a large area has been purchased, and all the 
structures in progress are on a proper scale 
and of a substantial character. We are re- 
ceived by an official, who courteously shows 
us the buildings and cars. The latter con- 
sist of three classes, all short, and on four 
wheels. The first class cars are well padded, 
about five feet high, and divided into two com- 
plirtments, each holding nine passengers, who 
face each other. The second class are cov- 
ered, and have haircloth seats, but some have 
curtains instead of windows. The third class 
are open and divided into four parts, with 
eideseats parallel to each other, like those 
of an omnibus, and carry forty passengers. 
The engines are of the English pattern, with 
six wheels. 

At half past six, on the morning of the 
9th, we take an omnibus to the depot, and 



BELGIAN RAIL-WAYS. 



37 



purchase tickets for ourselves and baggage, 
for which a email extra charge is made. 
The charges are, for the first class passen- 
gers two cents per mile, second class one 
and four tenths, and third class eight tenths 
of a cent ; and it is a gratifying fact to the 
philanthropist, that all attempts to advance 
these rates have diminished the revenue of 
the rail-ways, which pay a fair interest on 
the outlay, and bid fair to become very pro- 
ductive as the freight traffic, now in its in- 
fancy, becomes developed, and the lines 
completed. 

Our train conveys 104 persons. Of these, 
20, including a portion of our party, and 
many English, are first class ; 26 second 
class ; and 58, or more than half, third class. 
As the morning is clear and delightful, and 
I am desirous to see the country and the 
route, I take my seat in the rear car, with 
the third class passengers, and find there 
many well-dressed and respectable people. 
Beside me sits a very pleasant and intelli- 
gent priest, and a very polished gentleman 
with him, who converse with ease and flu- 
ency in French and Latin, point out to me 
many objects of interest, and make many 
inquiries about America. One of them styles 
the rail-way the viam ferream, which is cer- 
tainly more euphonious than the Chemnin de 
fer, of France, or the Isebar, of Germany. 
The conductor, who speaks German, English, 
and French, and has but 1200 francs, or $225 
a year, is as courteous and gentlemanly as 
any one I have ever seen in that office. 

In a few moments after our train is ar- 
ranged, the station-bell rings. The conduc- 
tor, at the head of the train, sounds his bugle ; 
the guard, at the other extremity, blows his 
bugle in reply, and we are in motion. We 
follow the valley of the Vesdre, a small 
stream like that of our Pontoosuc valley, 
and cross and re-cross the stream by frequent 
bridges, and pierce the spurs of the inter- 
locking hills by tunnels, of which there are 
no less than eleven in the twenty miles be- 
tween Verviers and Liege, one of which is 
more than half a mile in length. The coun- 
try is broken, and resembles the Agawam 
and Valatie valleys, between Boston and 
Albany. We pass many chateaus, the resi- 



dences of the nobility and gentry, and a 
large zinc manufactory, from which large 
supplies are sent to the United States. We 
travel slowly, on account of the gradients 
and curves ; and, as there are no sparks, our 
seat is one of the most pleasant in the train. 
In the open car, with us, are many well- 
dressed females, who use parasols to shelter 
them from the sun. We enter the ancient 
city of Liege by a light and graceful stone 
bridge, on three elliptic arches across the 
Meuse, here five hundred feet wide. This 
structure shows the decided improvement of 
modern art, and is far superior to an q,ncient 
and heavy stone bridge above, of six arches, 
built two centuries since. 

At Liege we engage a carriage, and drive 
for two hours through this fine old city, built 
principally of stone. We pass the quay, on 
the banks of the river, the theatre, the baths, 
in a fine building with a beautiful garden in 
front, many large squares, and enter the 
Court of the Palais of Justice. This vener- 
able old palace is built around a hollow 
square, at least two hundred feet wide, was 
erected three hundred and twenty-five years 
since, and, in the time of Henry the Fourth 
of France, was described by the queen of 
Navarre as one of the finest palaces of Europe, 
It is still beautiful, and in fine preservation. 

We visit St. Paul's Church, the interior of 
which is in exquisite taste ; its size, 250 feet 
by 80; its gothic architecture, fretted and 
painted roof, rich altar, tessellated floor, and 
fine paintings, with the mellowed light 
which comes through the narrow win- 
dows, seem to predispose one to devo- 
tion. 

We examine the largest and best arcade 
we have seen in Europe ; a building nearly 
an eighth of a mile in length, admirably 
lighted by sky-lights above and by a large 
dome in the centre, and lined with many 
gay shops. We pass the market-house, and 
for half a franc purchase a basket filled with 
choice peaches, plums, and pears, and return 
to the depot in season to proceed to Antwerp 
by the noon train. We now number 20 first 
class, 12 second, 70 third class passengers. 
Many of the latter are ladies, who seek shel- 
ter from the sun under their parasols, of 



38 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



Avhich I observed five or six in one car. In 
another, I noticed several clergymen, wear- 
ing three-cornered hats. 

We ascend from Liege an inclined plane 
of two miles by stationary power, so well 
managed that few of our party observe any 
difference in our motion, or notice the change 
from the fixed engine to the locomotive at 
the summit. As we proceed, the country 
becomes more level, populous, and highly 
cultivated. We notice large fields of wheat 
stubble, oats, potatoes, clover, flax, and Eng- 
lish beans, and frequent villages and church 
steeplae. The rail-road is admirably built 
with the exception of the rail, which is an 
edge rail, on chairs apparently of not more 
than forty pounds to the yard. When the cuts 
exceed ten feet in depth, we notice a space 
of at least two feet between the drain and 
the bank, and the face of the cut divided 
into two elopes, one above the other, as a 
precaution against slides. Nearly all the 
road-crossings are on a level, and are made 
perfectly secure by a guard and turnpike 
bar. The guards at these points are all fur- 
nished with handspikes, and, as we pass, 
stand erect, and present arms like soldiers. 
With such discipline, remissness and inat- 
tention cannot often occur. 

At Louvain our train has 36 first class 
passengers, principally English, 92 second 
class, and 120 third class. The average 
price paid by each person is about one and 
one sixth cent per mile. We soon reach 
Malines, the great central station, where the 
lines from Ostend, Lille, Antwerp, Liege, 
and other stations, intersect and exchange 
passengers. A most beautiful exhibition 
presents itself ; five trains, for as many dif- 
ferent points, are drawn up in parallel lines. 
The passengers, principally in open cars, 
with many females and children interspersed, 
in light colored dresses, have a most gay and 
lively appearance. From 1500 to 2000 pas- 
sengers are assembled. For a few moments 
there is a rapid movement from car to car ; 
but soon the interchange is effected, and 
train after train takes its departure. The 
whole system of Belgium is the most liberal, 
judicious, and admirably conducted in Eu- 
rope ; contributes most to the social inter- 



course and innocent amusement of the peo" 
pie, confers inestimable benefits on com- 
merce, has been conceived by philosophic 
men, independent of and above the influence 
of narrow and grovelling minds and popular 
caprice. It does honor to the country, and de- 
serves the imitation of enlightened nations. 

At Malines we notice a preference is given 
for engine-houses of an oblong pattern, not 
far from sixty feet in length, with side win- 
dows, like those of our churches, reaching 
nearly to the ground. From Malines to 
Antwerp we proceed across a level country^ 
highly cultivated, producing clover, beans, 
carrots, turnips, potatoes, and grain, and ar- 
rive at the station, without the ramparts of 
Antwerp, at 6 o'clock, p. m. 

I remain, yours ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Antwerp, September 9, 1843. 



LETTER XXL 

Antwerp — Mass at the Cathedral — Galleries 
of the Fine Arts — Honors to Genius — The 
Soho Steamer — A Voyage to London — The 
Custom- House. 

Arriving at Antwerp, we drive to the Ho- 
tel d'Angleterre, but soon regret we are not 
at the Hotel d'Antoine, one of the best in 
Europe. We are shown indifferent rooms ; 
but, on remonstrating, obtain the best in the 
house. The next morn we attend the sol- 
emn service of mass, at the ancient and ven- 
erable cathedral. This time-honored struc- 
ture, which towers to the height of 466 feet, 
was commenced in 1422, nearly a century 
before the discovery of America. The cor- 
ner-stone of the choir was laid in 1521, by 
the Emperor Charles the Fifth. The length 
of the building is 480 feet, the width 240, 
the height of the interior 360. It is deco- 
rated by some of the choicest pictures of Ru- 
bens ; which, during the service, are screened 
from the public eye. to prevent any interrup- 
tion to the service. The base of the cathedral 
is incrusted with many houses, clinging to it 



THE PICTURE GALLERIES OF ANTWERP. 



39 



like 80 many barnacles to a rock. These, by- 
contrast, appear most diminutive. 

We pass a bronze Btatue of Rubens, the 
great painter, of whom the Antwerpians are 
justly proud; also the celebrated Pump, 
made by another great painter ; the Ex- 
change, built in 1351, a monument of the 
ancient greatness of Antwerp. It surrounds 
an open square, 200 by 160 feet. Below is a 
piazza, formed by iron avehes and granite 
columns. Above are the halls of the Cham- 
ber of Commerce, and a clock and a sun- 
dial. The structure is so perfect, and eo 
appropriate for an Exchange, that I can 
scarcely realize that it was the resort of mer- 
chants, and the centre of an extensive and 
flourishing commerce, at least two centuries 
before Shakspeare wrote of rich argosies 
and galleons. 

The galleries of the fine arts are thrown 
open to the public. A sentinel guards the 
entrance to preserve good order, and citizens 
and strangers enter at their pleasure to view 
the treasure they contain. In the old gallery 
are pictures by the great masters of Flan- 
ders, far surpassing any we have seen in 
England or France, and some of the chef 
d'ceuvres of genius. Here are pictures 
which arrest the step and send a thrill 
through the frame. The great picture of the 
Crucifixion, by Rubens, presenting the Sa- 
viour and the Two Thieves in the last agonies 
of death, is indelibly fixed in my memory. 
The Call of St. Matthew, by Van Veen; 
The Annunciation, by Lens, are most admi- 
rable and exciting- 

From this collection we pass to other more 
extensive galleries, opening upon a flower- 
garden, devoted to modern paintings ; and, 
from the number of artists named in the 
catalogue, and their productions, I judge 
there must still exist a great taste for the fine 
arts in Antwerp. 

We admire particularly the Arrest of 
Charles the First, by Jacquand ; a market 
scene by candle-light, by Schendel ; Peter 
the Great at Saardam, by Wappers ; the 
death of Tasso, by Wittkemp ; Jane Shore 
dying of famine, by Biard ; and the visit of 
Charles the First with his family to the 
painter Van Dyke. These pictures, with 



many more I have not time to particularize, 
are eminently beautiful, and I regret that I 
have not the power to remove to Boston 
either the originals or copies. I am delight- 
ed to observe the interest in these exhibi- 
tions evinced by the countless throngs of 
well-dressed people, of all ages and classes, 
who resort to the galleries, and also the pro- 
priety of their deportment. Such exhibitions 
must have a tendency to refine and human- 
ize. 

The fine steamer Soho is about to sail for 
London. We separate from our accom- 
plished friend, Colonel W., who proceeds to 
Holland, and embark, with about 75 passen- 
gers, for England, and by 1 p. m. are on our 
way down the Scheldt. Our companions 
are principally English tourists, with a sprink- 
ling of French and Germans. Among the 
former is the blind Mr. H., whom we met 
upon the Rhine, with his party and carriage 
encased with trunks. A smooth summer's 
sea gives us a fine passage, and by seven 
A. M. we are e.itering the Thames. By a 
quarter to ten o'clock k. m. we land at the 
Blackwall pier. 

In imagination we have appropriated the 
morning to pleasant excursions about Lon- 
don. The day is unusually fine and inviting, 
and we are hurrying away, but find ourselves 
close prisoners. Every trunk and package 
must be examined seriatim by a single offi- 
cial and his clerks. A surly porter permils 
one person only to enter the office at a time, 
and calls our names from the berth-list of 
the steamer. Having devoted our last mo- 
ments at Antwerp to the galleries, we soon 
ascertain, to our infinite chagrin, that a wea- 
risome detention awaits us, and the barome- 
ter of our spirits falls rapidly. The list is 
slowly called. When the door opens, all 
presa forward with hope, but one only hears 
his name. Hour passes after hour. At length 
the H. family are called, and enter the door 
followed, to our utter consternation, by their 
trunk of a carriage. ' What ! ' exclaims the 
crowd, ' is that also to be unpacked and scru- 
tinized while we stand herel ' ' that Sir 
Robert Peel were here ! ' cries one ; ' that 
the queen or the Duke of Wellington were 
here,' says another ; ' I wish for Mr. Hume,' 



40 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



cries another, ' for he cuts down the Estab- 
lishment;' ' O'Connel would not submit to 
this,' urges an Irish lady ; ' for he asserts the 
rights of the people.' Some are eloquent in 
favor of free trade ; others decry Pitt for the 
national debt, which brings down upon them 
the excise, the income tax, and the custom- 
house. The men become excited, and the 
ladies fretful. A rich old gentleman, return- 
ing from his travels, tries to console them by 
urging, that the debt has saved England from 
a revolution. ' Yes.' cries another, ' it is 
doubly unfortunate ; for, by a revolution, we 
should have escaped both from the debt and 
the aristocracy.' Amidst all this, my friend 
C. quietly sits down at a table, and, while I 
urge that in America we would, by our news- 
papers, correct such an evil in a week, he 
very silently takes notes of all that occurs. 
A whisper soon circulates that he is the fa- 
mous Col. Crockett, and is taking notes for 
publication. The fever rapidly subsides, and 
several ladies faintly express a hope that he 
will not caricature them. I ask them, in re- 
ply, what they think Hall, Fiddler, Trollope, 
or Dickens would have made of such a dish 
in America, and if we are not privileged to 
retaliate. Our turn, at length, arrives, and, 
with the day nearly gone, after a detention 
of about four hours, we escape from our 
prison. It is the more provoking as it disap- 
points all our plans and arrangements for our 
remaining eight days in Europe, and deprives 
us of all hope of seeing Edinburgh and Dub- 
lin, and, after all, there is nothing in our 
trunks to detain the inspector three minutes. 
We visit our commercial friends and transact 
business ; in the evening view the fire-works 
at gardens on the south side of the Thames 
— after which we go to various shops in the 
Strand, to purchase a few articles of dress 
and presents for our wives and children, and 
find the retail prices are nearly as high as in 
Boston. The rents of the shops on this street 
do not materially vary from those of similar 
Bhops in our great thoroughfare, Washington 
street. The taxes, however, are much higher 
in London than in Boston. We slsep at the 
London tavern, Ludgate Hill, and I remain 
Yours ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

London, September 12th, 1843. 



LETTER XXn. 

Great Western Rail-way — Oxford — Ancient 
Colleges — Dr. Pusey — Depression of Prop- 
erty — Anti-Corn Law Meeting — Messrs. 
Bright, Cobden, and Lord Norreys. 

On the morning of September 12th we 
transact business with the great iron house 
of T. and F., Thames St., London, and ascer- 
tain that our purchase has risen in value sev- 
eral thousand pounds daring our absence on 
the Continent. After making definite ar- 
rangements for the shipment of the iron we 
take an early dirmer, and drive to the station 
of the Great Western Rail-way, at Padding- 
ton. On our way, we pass the edge of Re- 
gent's Park, and have a view of this exten- 
sive and beautiful pleasure-ground. Among 
the modern improvements of London, there 
is nothing more pleasing to me, than this pro- 
vision for the comfort, recreation, and health 
of its population. Tho parks also afford the 
most prominent and beautiful sites for archi- 
tectural display ; and here the rich, while 
they gratify their own taste in the erection of 
beautiful mansions, may contribute to the 
embellishment of the city. 

The distance from the city to the station is, 
at least, four miles, and, as we advance, we 
notice various signs indicating our approach 
to the Great Western Rail-way. The pas- 
senger station is large and commodious, but 
we have little time to examine the details ; 
the hour for departure has arrived, we hasten 
to secure seats, and are soon in rapid motion. 

This line has a track seven feet wide, and 
is one of the most costly in England, ex- 
pense having been disregarded in the attempt 
to reduce it as nearly as possible to an air 
line, and dead level. The speed is great, 
but the cars have an uneasy motion, and al- 
though some of them are tastefully lined, 
padded, and lighted with plate-glass; the 
second class, in which it is the usage of the 
country to travel, have no windows, and are 
comfortless in the extreme, and they are all 
as different from our own as a small closet is 
from a well-lighted and airy drawing-room. 
The idea of rail-way accommodation in Eng- 
land, appears to have been taken from the 



THE GREAT WESTERN RAIL-WAY. 



41 



etage-coach for six inside and ten outside. 
The first class car is made to conform to a 
small, close carriage, and the second class to 
the outside of the coach, with this difference 
only, that a permanent umbrella is placed 
over the heads of the travellers. In other 
respects, they require great-coats, mufflers, 
and fear-noughts, quite as much as the 
top of the coach. 

Engineers differ, as to the policy of giving 
•width to the track. There is no doubt it ad- 
mits of rather more speed, but there are 
countervailing objections, which must, I 
think, prevent the general adoption of wide 
tracks in America. 

As you widen the track, you must increase 
in the same proportion the width, and, of 
course, the cost of the cuts and embank- 
ments. You must increase the length of the 
axles of every engine and car, and, as you 
increase the length, you must also add to the 
diameter of the axle, and the size of the 
wheels. The dead-weight of the train is 
thus rapidly augmented, the capacity of the 
train for freight and passengers diminished, 
or a weight injurious to the rail is thrown 
upon the wheels. Extreme speed is pur- 
chased, too, by increased weight, and wear 
of the engine and cars, and consumption of 
fuel, to say nothing of greater danger to the 
passenger ; for, in case of accidents, the vio- 
lence of the shock must be proportioned to 
the velocity, and it is far easier to arrest a 
moderate speed than the rapid motion of a 
powerful and heavy engine. 

In our country, too, the expense of clear- 
ing the track from snow, and overcoming 
high gradients, would be much augmented. 
I give, therefore, a decided preference to our 
almost uniform width of four feet eight and 
a half inches, which is the same as that of 
the London and Birmingham. I am also 
satisfied that the speed of thirty miles per 
hour exclusive of stops, which we may, and 
often do, attain on our lines, is sufficient for 
all practical purposes. 

The course of the great western rail-way to 
Steventon, where we propose to take coach 
for Oxford, is along the valley of the Thames, 
a small placid river, one of the most easy 
routes I have ever seen ; such a route that in 
America, after paying a duty of one hundred 



per cent, on English rails, of sixty pounds to 
the yard, we should have constructed and 
equipped on it a single track equal to the 
Concord and Nashau on a similar route, at a 
cost of $18,000, or £4,000 per mile, and for 
£2,000 a mile more have laid down a double- 
track. The outlay here has exceeded 
£50,000 a mile, a large part of which has 
been spent in law expenses, conciliating 
great landholders, costly tunnels, and via- 
ducts, to preserve levels and insure unusual 
speed. 

With the same business, if built on the 
American plan and scale of expenditure, it 
would return, annually, from fifty to eighty 
per cent. 

In this critique upon this rail -way, I must, 
however, do justice to the eminent engineer 
who built it : his leading objects were speed 
and permanence, and these have been ob- 
tained ; and the work must endure, a lasting 
memorial of the mechanical skill and vast 
capital of the age. 

We fly through and over a beautiful coun- 
try, highly cultivated, presenting many views 
of the Thames ; we catch a glimpse of the 
turrets of Windsor, crowning a height in the 
distance. We pass Reading, an unpretend- 
ing town, with a modern jail built of brick, 
in the style of a feudal castle, and in two 
hours reach Steventon, sixty miles from Lon- 
don, for which distance the fare in the sec- 
ond class car is eight shillings. 

We here take the omnibus for Oxford, 
which we reach soon after dark. As we 
approach, we descend a hill, from the sum- 
mit of which the lights of the city are visi- 
ble in the rich valley beneath. A mist over- 
hangs the city, which chills us as we ap- 
proach, and, at the suggestion of the driver, 
we alight at the Star Inn, near the centre of 
Oxford. While we sit at the tea-table, un- 
conscious of having a friend or acquaintance 
at this ancient seat of letters, and somewhat 
indisposed from our chilling ride, a gentle- 
man enters, and inquires if either of us is 
Professor Walker, from America; we an- 
swer in the negative, observing, we are his 
friends, but are not aware that he is at this 
time in England. Our visitor presents a card 
received from the Professor, and addressed 
from ' The Star,' and we soon trace him to 



42 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



his room, where we are delighted to recog- 
nize one of our most public-spirited men. 
Our visitor proves to be Mr. W., of Oxford, 
whose kindness, cordiality, and warmth of 
manner, carry me home to America. He in- 
vites us to breakfast, and promises us a guide 
to the colleges and antiquities of Oxford. 

This morning, September 13th, a party of 
four Americans assemble at the table of Mr. 
W., who occupies a neat and comfortable 
house in one of the pleasantest streets of the 
city. Our entertainment beside tea, toast, 
and eggs, the usual English breakfast, is con- 
versation about the two countries. Mr. W. 
speaks of the depression of trade, of the 
taxes, which are not far from one dollar on 
each of his windows, six dollars on his 
light carriage, and eight dollars on his horse, 
beside taxes on his house furniture, and in- 
come and heavy duties, or excise, on most 
of the necessaries of life. He informs us, 
property has fallen within a few years thirty 
per cent, in Oxford, as it has also in many 
other parts of England, and sees no pros- 
pects of improvement except from giving 
greater freedom to trade, and thus rendering 
less onerous the burdens of the subject. 
We discuss America, the condition and com- 
forts of the masses there — the progress of 
temperance, education, and virtue — the won- 
derful achievements of steam on land and 
water, which have bound the twenty-six 
States in closer bonds than the old thirteen, 
and given to each large city the power to 
assemble in a day an army for its defence. 
Of the rapid recovery of the union from its 
temporary depression — of the progress of 
commerce on our inland Baltics, Adriatics, 
and Mediterraneans. We speak of slavery, 
and repudiation, as I trust, every Christian 
and honest man should speak; but when 
asked if the North would sustain the South 
in any national contest with Europe, I do not 
hesitate to answer, we should act as one na- 
tion, united by one Constitution. 

A brother of Mr. W. kindly conducts us 
through Oxford, and well does it repay us 
for our visit. For as we walk through colle- 
ges, chapels, and cloisters preserved for 
centuries with jealous care, as they were in 
the days of Woolsey, and, if I err not, in one 
case, in the days of Alfred, we feel as if we 



were breathing in another age, which we 
have known only in history. The bricks and 
the stone may be inferior to our granite, but 
the massive structures, the ancient architec- 
ture, the venerable chapels, and time-honor- 
ed halls and libraries, the sombre churches, 
velvet lawns, the quiet courts, devoted to 
science, and the shady walks along the clear 
streams, which unite to form the Thames, 
make a most pleasing impression. We view 
a modern and tasteful monument recently 
erected to the Martyrs of Oxford. We enter 
and admire the beautiful chapel of New Col- 
lege, with its immense painted window, seen 
through the organ as you stand near the altar, 
where we notice sculpture by Westmacot. We 
examine the New College, the libraries, with 
their 400,000 volumes. We enjoy, from the 
top of the Bodleian, a panoramic view of 
Oxford. We traverse Magdalen College and 
Chapel, Addison's walk, pass under Dr. 
Pusey's window, who, we are told, is in cor- 
respondence with the Catholics. We pass a 
chapel of the old Saxon architecture, report- 
ed to have been built by Alfred, we examine 
ancient pictures and relics, a Bible in Saxon, 
a copy-book of Queen Elizabeth, and, after 
a walk of four hours, are obliged to decline 
seeing any thing more, our minds being act- 
ually satiated by the very richness and vari- 
ety of the repast. One forenoon is not suffi- 
cient for Oxford. In the afternoon we have 
our choice between a ride to Blenheim, or a 
great Anti-Corn-law meeting at Oxford. 

Messrs. Cobden and Bright, members of 
Parliament, and the organs and champions of 
the anti-corn-law league,have selected Oxford, 
a citadel of the exclusive party, as the theatre 
of their operations. On a requisition signed 
by a number of land-holders, the sheriff has 
called a meeting of the farmers and tenantry 
of the country, to consider the bearing of the 
corn-laws on their interests. A hall, of the 
size of a county court-house in Mass.achu-. 
setts, is the place of meeting. It is soon 
nearly full ; the sheriff presides, and calls the 
meeting to order, and Mr. Cobden begins, but 
the audience becomes more and more dense, 
and the cry is, 'Adjourn to Gloucester Green, 
the hall will not hold us.' The speaker can- 
not proceed, and the sheriff, reluctantly, ad- 
journs the ineeting to the green. As we 



THE NOBILITY AND THE PEOPLE. 



43 



walk towards the spot, we observe men who 
bear large placards, warning the farmers to 
return home, and not to listen to thos^e who 
will deceive them, and are told many of the 
large proprietors havo forbidden their tenants 
to attend. We reach the ground, and ob- 
serve a stage for the orators, of several ox- 
wagons placed close up to a high wall, and an 
open area in front for the audience, who as- 
semble, to the number of several thousands. 
As soon as order is restored, Mr. Cobden 
proceeds, in a cool and logical manner, en- 
livened by occasional flashes of wit and 
pleasantry, or some pointed question, to ad- 
dress the audience. He argues with great 
force, that the present corn-laws depress 
trade and manufactures, that they injure the 
farmers and tenants, and help no one but the 
landed interest, the few great proprietors who 
engross the land of Great Britain. That the 
rent is strained up to the highest point sup- 
posed to be warranted by the scale of duties. 
That the price fluctuates with the season 
from one extreme to the other, to the ruin of 
the tenant, as there is no regular supply from 
abroad, to equalize prices. That, when bread 
is cheap, business is active, and the country 
prospers ; and the reverse when it is dear. 
That England must decline, unless she ex- 
tend her manufactures, and she cannot do 
50 without she will take foreign grain in 
exchange. Mr. C. goes directly to his argu- 
ment, and does not declaim on matters and 
things in general, as orators sometimes do, 
and the audience respond, ' Yes, yes,' or 
' Right, right,' and with frequent cheers. He 
is succeeded by Mr. Sparkall, from London, 
a bald gentleman, who undertakes to reply, 
but wanders from the subject, loses himself in 
a maze of quotations from a book in his hand, 
and soon retires, discomfited by the laugh- 
ter of the audience. Lord Camoys, a landed 
proprietor, and Liberal, who has recently 
risen from comparative poverty to a large 
landed estate near Oxford, very manfully 
sustains Mr. Cobden in his views, but ex- 
presses a preference for a moderate fixed 
duty as rendered necessary by the debt of 
England, and proposes a resolution to that 
effect, to which the audience answer ' No, 
no,' with loud cries of ' No duty/ and the 
resolution is put, and lost, 



At this stage of the discussion the mem- 
bers of Parliament for the county and city 
are called for, and there are freqnent calls for 
Lord Norreys, one of these members. In a 
few moments a pert young gentleman, with 
his hair nicely arranged, and his neck-hand- 
kerchief very neatly adjusted, comes for- 
ward. His speech, which is quite common- 
place, has, apparently, been well studied 
and committed. He observes, the country 
will be ruined if the corn-laws are repealed, 
and ascribes the general distress to over- 
production. The audience interrupt him by 
continued cries of ' No, no,' ' There is no 
over-production.' As the tumult subsides, 
my Lord turns upon his heel, and with cool 
indifl'erence tells his constituents, ' That he 
will not speak unless they desire it, he came 
only because he was called for.' ' Hear 
him,' cries a jovial baker from the crowd. 
' Langston wi\[ answer him, and you may de- 
pend upon it, there will be no over-production 
here.' This sally puts the audience in good- 
humor, and my Lord concludes. There was, 
however, another sally, which made much 
merriment. It seems, that Lord Norreys is 
particularly distinguished in Parliament, by 
crowing down unpopular speakers, and one 
of his constituents on the Green, exclaims, 
' Come, Norreys, you 've spoke enough, why 
do n't yon crow 1 ' A loud laugh follows. I 
infer from this scene, the degree of respect 
which Lord N., who owes his office to family 
influence, feels for his constituents, and hoW' 
much they feel for him. 

Mr. Langston annihilates Lord Norreys by 
his reply. Mr. Henley, another member, a 
country 'squire, like those described by Field- 
i ng, assails, but is easily answered by Mr. Cob- 
den. Mr. Bright follows, and sustains the lat- 
ter with much feeling and earnestness. The 
meeting closes with a resolution proposed by 
a Mr. Towle, in favor of free trade, which is 
carried by acclamation. The result of such a 
meeting in the strong-hold of the Tory party 
gives a presage of the future. 

This meeting was extremely interesting, 
and it would have delighted me to have ad- 
dressed it ; to have pictured England as she 
might have been, and, if true to herself, pos- 
sibly still may be. A perfect garden — the 
centre of arts, wealth, and civilization — her 



44 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



land not permanently depressed by the re- 
peal of the corn-laws, but applied to new 
uses, cut up into small fields under the high- 
est cultivation, into market and cottage gar. 
dens, yielding, under a skilful culture, twice 
the returns now rendered. Her people,* in a 
climate most favorable to the development of 
the human form, and the production of a 
noble race, busily employed in all the arts 
of life, using their boundless fields of coal 
and minerals in aid of the arts, and to min- 
ister to the necessities of distant lands, cov- 
ering the sea with ships, bearing to her the 
produce, the materials, and the fabrics, to 
which those lands are best adapted, and 
which, alone, they can offer in exchange. 

I would picture fourfold the population 
which now exists, living under equal laws, 
educated, contented and happy, drawing 
their bread, like Holland in her palmy days, 
from all the granaries of the earth, and bear- 
ing, with ease, the burdens which now press 
heavily on the lesser number. Forgetting 
her harshness towards us, I would regard her 
as the land of my fathers, and, doubtless, 
the home of my kindred, and fervently pray 
flhe may realize the possibility I have pic- 
tured. Yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Oxford, September 13, 1843. 



LETTER XXni. 

Oxfordshire — An English Paper Maker — 
Warwickshire — English Farming — Bir- 
mingham and Derby Rail-way — Derby — 
The Dissenters. 

Rising at an early hour we take our cup 
of coffee at the Star Inn, Oxford, pay an un- 
reasonable bill, and engage outside seats on 
the coach for Birmingham, sixty miles dis- 
tant. The passengers are three inside and 
Beven without. Their trunks are placed on 
the top of the coach. Upon the seat with us 
we find a commercial traveller and a paper- 
maker, Mr. T., whose mill is upon the 
Thames. As my friend, Mr. C, has several 
paper mills in Worcester county, the two 

* See note A, Appendix. 



manufacturers compare notes and enter into 
a discission, from which I infer that New 
England is ahead of the mother country in 
mechanism, and makes paper quite as cheap 
but pays rather a higher price for the mate- 
rial : that the operative with us, is better fed 
and paid, accomplishes more in a day, and 
is more moral and intelligent. I learn, also, 
that such are the restraints and charges in 
England on the transfer of property, that our 
companion could make a profit by dividing 
his estates into lots, and selling them to the 
operatives at £20 each, but it is prevented by 
the cost, which would be £8 on each con- 
veyance, and absorb the profit. Mr. C. ob- 
serves he has divided his estate into similar 
lots, and sold them to operatives at a cost of 
but one shilling each for the conveyances. 
The English manufacturer, Mr. T., is a man 
of liberal notions, and much enthusiasm, ar- 
dent for reform, free trade, and a repeal of 
the corn-laws, and a warm friend to Ameri- 
ca. On learning I am a Bostonlan, to my 
great surprise, he draws from his pock- 
et a work of Dr. Channing. The commer- 
cial traveller is quite a dlff"erent person; he is 
a stickler for the present state of things, and 
appears to have few ideas beyond Birming- 
ham. 

About seven miles beyond Oxford we see 
Blenheim, the celebrated seat of the Duke 
of Marlborough. We pass an inn, whose 
sign is the Marlborough Arms, and the lodge 
and almshouse at the park gate. At the lat- 
ter, a fine buck in a hamper, is placed in the 
coach. It is directed to an eminent attorney 
at Birmingham, the adviser of the Duke. 
This little incident will not, I trust, be lost to 
clients in America. We catch a glimpse of 
the ducal residence, and regret we cannot 
stop to examine the fine paintings. We pass 
at a speed of nine miles per hour through a 
fine country ; the agriculture is, however, by 
no means perfect. The land is cultivated in 
ridges, between which are wide balks, as 
they are termed .here, or strips of land in 
grass. We are struck particularly with the 
ploughs, which are cumbrous and apparently 
inferior to our own. Each of these, we no- 
tice, is drawn by five horses tandem, with 
a ploughman and two drivers, one of them 



LORD BROUGHAM. 



45 



mounted. With this force the plough slowly 
crosses in a field already ploughed, and as 
the horses turn, on reaching the boundary 
hedge, we observe two are able to draw 
it to the end of the furrow. One American, 
with two horses, would, in our opinion, do 
twice the work in a day. 

The laborers appear dull, and ill fed, and 
if, as we are told, they receive but one shil- 
ling a day, it is doubtful if they earn more. 
They lack the impulse of education, or of 
some incentive to elevate them from their 
depressed condition. 

But while I notice the depression of the 
pauper laborers of England, let me not leave 
her shores without paying a tribute of res- 
pect to (one who is not responsible for this de- 
pression) that distinguished statesman and 
philosopher. Lord Brougham, who has done 
more for the diffusion of useful knowledge, 
the establishment of Lyceums, the advance- 
ment of science, the promotion of legal re- 
forms and systematic education, than any 
one in Europe. 

In England, if men become distinguished, 
the aristocracy opens its arms, and like a 
whirlpool draws them into its bosom from the 
humble circle in which they moved, and nat- 
urally defended. Unlike others, Lord Broug- 
ham has remained the undaunted advocate of 
the many, after acquiring rank, wealth, and 
power. His independence may have lost him 
the favor of politicians, but freemen can under- 
stand him, and posterity will do him justice. 

We proceed across a rolling country, pass 
several parks and preserves, many turnpike 
gates, so unusual with ub, and frequent vil- 
lages. The latter consist of ranges of small 
brick houses and shops very rudely furnished ; 
in the scale of comfort many degrees below 
our New England villages. The country, 
however, is superior in soil to any part of 
Massachusetts. 

In the course of the morning we cross a 
bridge over a small stream, near a canal and 
rail-way and enter a bustling little town. 
This is Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of 
the immortal Shakspeare, whose genius il- 
lumines age after age, and is appreciat- 
ed as much or more, on the Hudson, and 
perhaps the Missouri, than on the Avon it- 



self While the coach changes horses, we 
alight and repair, like pilgrims, to the house 
where he was born, and view it as a spot 
consecrated by genius. It was indeed but 
an humble residence. A small tenement of 
two low stories, a framework of wood, filled 
in with mortar, one latficed window above, 
and, in place of a window below, a swing- 
ing half door, drawn back during the day, 
and fastened to a staple in the ceiling. In 
such a rude and comfortless mansion, com- 
pared with Avhich, some log cabins in our 
forests are palaces, was reared the great poet 
of England. 

We reach Birmingham at two p. m., accom. 
plishing the sixty miles in eight hours. In 
the course of our ride our friend, Mr. T., in- 
quires if we did not find the Star at Oxford 
expensive and comfortless. He suggests that 
experienced travellers in England rarely se- 
lect inns with ' stars' for signs, unless they ard 
regardless of expense, or anxious to come in 
contact with the nobility. At his suggestion, 
and with a view to see more of the middle 
classes of England, we repair to a Commer- 
cial House, and are furnished with a plain, 
but excellent dinner, at one half the charge 
of mine host of the Star. The house is kept 
by a dissenter from the established church, 
and usually patronized by dissenters. We 
find on the mantle-piece a book, containing 
the address of similar houses in all the large 
towns of England, and are assured we shall 
find good entertainment at each of them. In 
such a distinct circle do the dissenters re- 
volve. While here we read, in the London 
paper of this morning, a full report of the 
speeches made last evening at Oxford. 

Parting with our honest and obliging host 
and intelligent travelling companion, we de- 
termine to inspect the northern rail-ways, 
and at the Birmingham and Derby station 
take seats for Derby, forty miles distant. 

Our train is composed of a first and second 
class and two third class cars. We have but 
four first class, eight second class, and fifty 
third class passengers. The latter are seated 
in open cars, like those of Belgium, and 
among them are many well dressed persons 
both male and female. We notice nothing 
worthy of interest at the station, except a fine 



46 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



brick repair shop, about 200 feet in length, 
by 50 in width, the design of which is excel- 
lent. The afternoon is pleasant, the country 
level, and highly cultivated : at Castle Brom- 
wich, the rail-way intersects a road which 
formerly crossed a meadow on a level. In 
America and Belgium, the engineer would 
have carried the rail-way across at grade, but 
the Company, to humor the caprice of some 
rich landholder who opposed them in Parlia- 
ment, have been obliged to conduct the road 
over the rail-way w^ith a gradual ascent and 
descent on a costly brick viaduct of thirty- 
five arches, nearly a quarter of a mile in 
length. In this single viaduct we estimate 
there is more masonry than in the whole 
Fitchburg Rail-way, a line longer than the 
Birmingham and Derby. Thus is capital 
wasted in England. 

We soon approach a station where my com- 
panions in the car alight ; they are two portly 
and rosy-cheeked men, wdio would certainly, 
with us, take a premium for size, at any ex- 
hibition of stout gentlemen. They point out 
to me the spot where Sir Robert Peel resides. 
The town is Taraworth, and a ruined tower 
stands near it, doubtless the same which 
Scott assigns to Marmion, when his heralds 
hail him lord of ' Tamworth Tower and 
Town.' My associations with this spot were 
once poetical, but now I shall group together 
the mail-clad warrior, the astute statesman? 
and the stout gentlemen of England. 

In two hours from Birmingham we reach 
Derby, and take rooms in a pleasant Com- 
mercial House, kept by Mr. Gawthorn, at St. 
Mary's Gate, and find a most kind and de- 
voted host, and attentive hostess. 

Mr. G. has been tried in the furnace of ad- 
versity ; he tells us he once held as tenant 
an excellent farm^ and by his industry and 
frugality was acquiring an independence, 
but he could not conform to the Church of 
England. One evening he held a religious 
meeting at his house ; this reached the ears 
of the rector ; the rector applies to the land- 
lord, and tells him he is fostering a dissenter 
on his estate; a notice to quit is at once serv- 
ed. The poor man remonstrates, but in vain. 
Punctuality in paying rent, faithful perform- 
ance of contracts, avail him not ; he must 
change his religion or lose his estate. At 



length his good character procures for him 
the station of master of a Union almshouse^ 
which prospers under his care. It becomes 
flourishing, but the committee in charge re- 
quire him to read the Church of England Ser- 
vice. His conscience compels him to de- 
cline, and for his religion he again loses his 
Elation. He Is now struggling to establish 
his Commercial House, and looks to dissen- 
ters for patronage, and to churchmen as his 
foes. You may well imagine that his feel- 
ings are embittered to the highest degree 
against churchmen, that he denounces in the 
warmest terms the unholy union of church 
and state. The Church of England may well 
totter to its foundations, if it sends forth many 
such men, excited and embittered by their 
real or supposed wrongs to inflame against 
her all who come within the sphere of their 
influence. 

I happen to have with me a Boston alma- 
nac, which contains this year engravings of 
our sixty churches ; and when I tell him, that 
they are all sustained without a tithe or any 
aid from the state, he begs me to leave it 
with him, as an irresistible proof that religion 
can flourish without coercion from govern- 
ment. In this respect, how much happier are 
we at home. Here we sit under the pastor, 
where we have the privilege to chose and re- 
gard him as an object of interest and affec- 
tion; but, in England, the parish have no 
voice in the selection, and are compelled to 
maintain the incumbent whom some great 
proprietor or some distant prelate finds it 
most convenient to name. The church, in 
fact, is regarded rather as an appendage to 
the aristocracy, as a convenient place, like 
the army and navy, where power and patron- 
age may dispose of the younger branches of 
great houses without much regard to their 
tastes or qualifications to improve their peo- 
ple. What is the result ? does not the cler- 
gyman too often regard his station merely as 
an office which is to yield him so many 
pounds a year ; and must not his people too 
often regard him as a costly burden, which 
they cannot discard? Thank heaven, the 
Episcopal church in which I worship at home 
has no connexion with the state. 

Yours ever, Massachusetts. 

Derhy, September 14, 184S. 



DERBY. 



47 



LETTER XXIV. 

Derby — The Arboretum — The Derby Sta- 
tion — JFages of Mechanics — Intelligence 
and Courtesy of Engineers — North Mid- 
land and York and North Midland Rail-ways. 

After a refreshing night's repose we 
breakfast early, and leave our lodgings at 
Derby on an excursion through the town. 
Derby is substantially built of brick and 
stone, contains many good streets, shops, 
and houses, and exhibits many indications 
of wealth. The females have good figures, 
and there is something in the appearance of 
the people, in the color of the bricks, and 
the style of building, which reminds me of 
Boston. I notice several stone churches in 
excellent taste, and admirably placed in 
positionSj where the architectural effect is 
not injured by adjacent buildings. It is 
market day, and the streets are thronged. 
We visit the Arboretum, an inclosiire con- 
taining many acres, laid out as a landscape 
garden or shrubbery, and dedicated to the 
public by an eminent and successful silk 
manufacturer. The grounds have been 
thrown into artificial banks and lawns, and 
planted with many varieties of trees and 
flowers, and are a beautiful and favorite 
promenade ; and the munificent donor, still 
in a green old age, is rewarded by the grati- 
tude of his townsmen. A few days before 
our arrival the citizens celebrated- his birth- 
day. How much happier must he be in 
thus diffusing happiness, and promoting in- 
nocent recreation, than in accumulating 
wealth for heirs to circulate in a round of 
folly and frivolity. 

We essay to enter a silk manufactory. 
The porter courteously refers us to the prin- 
cipal, and we inform him, that we are stran- 
gers who have come there to examine the 
rail-ways, and having never seen a silk fac- 
tory are curious to see one. This with us 
would be a passport to a New England es- 
tablishment, but the ungracious answer we 
receive is, that our reasons are insufficient 
and we cannot be admitted. As we leave 
we cannot forbear to say, that we are from 



America, and if the proprietor should happen 
to come there, we will show him more cour- 
tesy than we have received in Derby. 

We proceed to the principal object of at- 
traction, the great Rail-way Station, reputed 
to be the largest and most perfect in Eng- 
land. We are here very courteously receiv- 
ed by Mr. Clark, of the Midland Counties 
Rail-way, who, on learning that we are direc- 
tors of American lines, shows us every atten- 
tion. We walk with him through the pas" 
senger depot, used by the three lines which 
unite here, the Midland Counties, North 
Midland, and Birmingham and Derby. This 
structure is of brick, is 1050 feet long, and in 
the centre 150 feet wide. A stone plat- 
form, about 30 feet wide, runs through the 
whole extent, between which and the street 
are offices for ticket-clerks, and baggage. 
Inside the platform are eight parallel lines of 
tracks, under cover. We examine the car- 
riages, which are similar to those we have 
seen. A first class carriage costs here £380, 
a second class £140. 

We proceed to the engine-house, a rect- 
angular building of brick, 200 feet by 50, 
with three tracks running through it, and 
arched doors at either end. Beyond it are 
three similar buildings for repairs. In one 
is a powerful steam-engine, and turning 
lathes; in another a foundry ; in a third 12 
fires for blacksmiths, whose bellows are 
blown by the steam-engine. The provi- 
sion for repairs is even more extensive than 
is necessary. We observe one provision for 
the line which we cannot too much com- 
mend. We notice in one building no less 
than eleven engines in perfect order, ready, in 
addition to those in daily use, as a reserved 
power for any emergency ; this is true econ- 
omy. Mr. Clark introduces us to Mr. Kirt- 
ley, the Engineer of the North Midland 
Rail-way, who very kindly escorts us through 
his premises, and shows us several exten- 
sive buildings for engines and repairs. 
His machine-shop is admirably lighted by 
doors and windows, which open to the 
ground. Mr. K. points out to us a circular 
engine-house, with a turn-table in the cen- 
tre, like the new engine-house in Lowell, 
sufficiently largo to receive sixteen engines. 



48 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



It is a fine building, but Mr. K. expresses a 
decided preference for that of the Midland 
Counties, as the most convenient and eco- 
nomical. He gives us the wages of the 
mechanics, which vary from 20 to 27 shill- 
ings per week, averaging not far from a dol- 
lar per day. He informs us, that the most 
valuable recent improvements he has no- 
ticed are Bank's patent steel tire, and 
Dodd's patent eccentrics, which he regards 
as very important and successful. From 
our conversation witli Mr. K. we infer that 
he is a judicious, cautious, and frugal man, 
introducing important reforms where there 
has been much extravagance. 

The land occupied by this Station is thirty 
acres, and, with the buildings of the three 
Companies, has cost £270,000. None of the 
three lines, however, are successful, and I am 
m.uch inclined to ascribe the deficiency to 
their fares, which are extravagantly high, 
namely, from three to seven cents per mile.* 
The arrangements for the freight business, 
too, are very defective, the buildings incon- 
venient, the cars small, and carried in by 
turn-tables and tracks at right angles from the 
main line, and the goods are generally elevat- 
ed by cranes from the floor to the car. In 
truth, the arrangements for our freighting 
business on the line from Boston to Albany, 
far surpass any thing to be seen in Europe. 
Long trains of freight-cars, each thirty feet 
long, a perfect storehouse on wheels, holding 
fourteen tons of merchandise, running into de- 
pots four hundred and fifty feet long, and one 
hundred and twenty feet wide, with no pil- 
lars, and with platforms on a level with the 
floors of the cars, so that the freight may be 
rolled in and out, would surprise the English 
engineer. Still more would he be surprised 
on viewing the depot at Albany, of similar 
length, with its roof overhanging the canal, 
and a steam-engine loading and discharg- 
ing, both in storm and sunshine, six or 
seven canal boats at once, with perfect facil- 
ity, the packages of ggods descending as the 
flour rises. 

After a pleasant morning we dine and 
separate ; my companion, Mr. C, returns to 

* See note B, in the Appendix. 



Birmingham, to fulfil an engagement with a 
friend to whom we have letters, while I take 
the afternoon train, of the North Midland, 
for York. Our train has no third class car- 
riages, and the passengers are few in num- 
ber. We traverse a most picturesque coun- 
try, passing near the edge of the old forest of 
Sherwood, noted for the feats of Robin 
Hood and his archers. We notice brooks, 
fertile slopes, wooded hills, and rolling up- 
lands, pretty villages, old castles, and 
churches. The stations are of stone, highly 
finished and tasteful, and the scene, for many 
miles, the most beautiful I have seen in 
England. My companinons are polished 
and gentlemanly men, who kindly answer 
my inquiries. Our speed when moving ex- 
ceeds Avhat is usual in America, for the di- 
ameter of the wheels is greater than with us, 
but the stops are not well managed. At 
least two or three doors on the side of each 
carriage must be opened from the outside, 
for which we have no occasion on our lines, 
and the result is, that few rail-ways exceed 
our ordinary average of twenty miles per 
hour. As we stop at a small station a party 
of young men, fresh from the races at Don- 
caster, and a little elevated with their pota- 
tions, join the train, and prove any thing but 
agreeable companions ; they amuse them- 
selves with cracking filberts, and discussing 
the merits of the winning and losing horses, in 
a most rude and boisterous manner. Were 
I actuated by the spirit of some tourists in 
our country, I might cite them as specimens 
of English manners, but I forbear; and truth 
bids me add, that there is through England 
a large class of gentlemen, dissevered more 
distinctly than with us from the less educat- 
ed classes, whose manners have an ease, 
elegance, and polish that may be copied 
with advantage. I will not concede, how- 
ever, that they surpass my countrymen 
in what are more valuable, intelligence, 
sagacity, warmth of feeling, and kindness of 
heart. Perhaps each have virtues and qual- 
ifications that might well be blended. 

I reach York by eight p. m., half an hour 
behind time, and remain. 

Yours, truly, Massachusetts. 

YorJcj September 15, 1843. 



YORK. 



49 



LETTER XXV. 

York Minster — Castle and Clifford's Tower 
— A decaying City — Country Seats — A 
Man of Genius — North Midland Rail-ivay. 

On my arrival at York, after securing 
pleasant rooms, I take a stroll through the 
city ; the sky is clear, and the moon shine.5 
brightly, and, remembering the beautiful 
lines of Scott, 

' If thou would'st view fair Melrose aright, 
Go visit it by the pale moonlight,' 

I direct my steps towards the Minster. 
This ancient strucliire is one of the most 
imposing monuments of the old religion of 
England, and the effect of the moon- 
beams on its venerable grey towers is most 
pleasing. It stands almost entirely insula- 
ted, is nearly five hundred feet in length, 
and two hundred in width. Around the 
principal part of it is a grass plat, encircled 
by a street, except for a short distance in the 
rear, where stands a palace attached to the See 
of York. The houses near it are ancient, 
and of moderate height, and such is the 
arrangement of the streets, that a viev/ is 
commanded from distant points. I have 
seen no religious edifice during my tour 
whose exterior is more pleasing or impres- 
sive. 

The brilliant days of this city are past. 
Once a distinguished colony of Rome, it 
holds the ashes of a Roman Emperor ; sub- 
sequently the seat of religious magnificence, 
it prided itself not only on its Minster, but on 
seventy-five churches, (two thirds of which 
have crumbled away,) and was the resort of 
countless monks, pilgrims, and devotees. 
More recently it has been the capital of the 
North ; and many of the northern gentry, 
who Would not encounter the fatigue and 
expense of a long journey to London, re- 
sorteil here for the winter; but the innova- 
tion of rail-ways now bears them away to 
the metropolis, and 

• Decay's effacing fingers, 
Will sweep the lines where beauty lingers,' 

unless some new attraction be discovered. 



Here is, in truth, the 'aspect of decay;' with 
the exception of a Club House, Theatre, and 
a street built during the last era to which I 
have alluded, and now almost desolate, all 
is ancient ; the style of the architecture, the 
projecting windows, the tiled roofs, the city 
walls are all of another day. It is in truth 
a perfect contrast to every thing I have seea 
in the new world. 

I walk out of the city to the castle, a 
magnificent stone edifice, constructed at 
a cost of £200,000, containing a palace, 
court house, and prisons. Within the walls 
are the ruins of Cliflbrd's Tower, once a 
moated castle, commanding the city. From 
the summit I enjoy a delightful view of 
the Minster, the city, with its stone bridge 
across the Ouse, a fleet of colliers, and a 
little steamer, running through meadows 
down to Hull. The interior of the cathe- 
dral is under repair, but I obtain admission 
by a small douceur to the workmen. It does 
not, however, surpass the interior of cathe- 
drals I have seen on the Continent. 

After a survey of the city, as my time 
does not permit me to visit Scotland, I 
shape my course towards Liverpool, and am 
again in motion on the York and North 
Midland Rail-way. The landscape is very 
pleasing ; the fields are usually in squares 
of eight or ten acres surrounded by hedges, 
In which grow solitary trees. In the dis- 
tance are seen on the eminences clumps of 
trees, stone churches, and gentlemen's seal.s. 
Large halls occasionally appear, which look 
as though they might some day or other 
make admirable colleges. We notice large 
flights of rooks and plover, cross many 
streams, canals, and beautiful roads, the last 
of which are superior to our own, but are 
far less numerous than is usual in America 
to accommodate the same extent of country. 
Alighting at Masborough, I Inquire my way 
to the house of Mr. D., in the adjacent town 
of Rotherham ; he is an eminent engineer, 
and receives me with the greatest kindness^ 
His fine stone house overlooks a beautiful 
country^ a pretty station, a tasteful hotel, 
and two lines of rail-way, one of which di- 
verges to Sheffield. He shows me drawings 
of his eccentrics, and valves, which he 



50 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



states save one third the fuel, and repairs of 
engines, and are most simple in their de- 
sign and construction, and which I purpose 
to introduce in America. This gentleman 
appears to be a man of genius and benev- 
olence ; he shows me a solid chilled wheel, 
and a switch that does not admit of acci- 
dents — both of which he has patented — a 
press for straightening rails, and an improved 
description of soap. He is also engaged in 
reclaiming five thousand acres of moss, by 
covering it seven inches deep with sand, 
which he introduces by rail-way. Mr. D. 
is of opinion, that a rail of fifty-six pounds 
to the yard will wear well with a weight of 
eight tons on the driving wheels, and re- 
marks that a much greater weight is not 
unusual in England. 

In the course of conversation, he speaks 
in the highest terms of our minister, Mr. 
Everett, who seems to win golden opinions 
from all classes in England ; and I should 
not omit to mention, that, in the course of 
my travels, I have heard two others of our 
countrymen, Powars, the sculptor at Florence 
and Mr. Marston, our consul at Sicily, spo- 
ken of in the highest terms of commendation. 
Taking the train for Leeds, I proceed in 
pail by the route I have already traversed, 
and observe nothing of moment, except that 
the ticket clerk at Woodlesford, five miles 
out of Leeds, is a negro, who appears quite 
aufait to the duties of hisofhce. 

Between Masborough and Leeds, I take 
a seat in the open cars, in which I find 
many respectable people deterred, by the 
unreasonable charges, from taking the high- 
er priced cars. Our train consists of about 
fifteen first, thirty second, and ninety third 
class passengers. Among the latter are few 
of the lower orders, for in this section of 
England, the charges are so high, that they 
are debarred from the rail-ways. The sta- 
tion at Leeds is in the usual English style, 
a brick building with sky-lights, and about 
two hundred by one hundred and forty feet, 
■with two platforms, and tracks between 
them, and a range of offices between the 
platforms and the street. 

I remain, yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

LeedSj September 16, 1843. 



LETTER XXVL 

Leeds — Discussion as to America — Manches- 
ter and Leeds Rail-vjays -^Valley of the Cal- 
der — Sleam-pouer of England — Manchester. 

On my arrival at Leeds, I take lodgings 
at a Commercial House, in the Briirgate, 
where I find a most kind and hospitable host 
and hostess, and good entertainment. 

I view the town, but find nothing interest- 
ing in Leeds. It has the appearance of an 
overgrown village, the principal street of 
which is disfigured by unsightly booths and 
cobblers' stalls between the sidewalk and the 
pavement, and there is nothing I can dis- 
cover in the shape of churches, schools, pri- 
vate structures, or antiquities to attract a 
stranger. There seems to be less polish too in 
the manners of the people than is usual in 
England. This is very apparent in various 
shops, which I enter to make some small 
purchases. 

On my return to the Commercial House, 
one of the guests, on discovering that I am a 
stranger and an American, attacks the United 
States, and very harshly charges my coun- 
trymen with the sins of slavery, repudiation, 
and fraud. I, of course, warm in defence of 
my country, and the discussion becomes ani- 
mated. I will not repeat his arguments, for 
the^- are familiar to all who read the Tory 
papers of England, which, from policy, show 
us and our institutions no mercy. I urge, that 
the North and Centre of the Union are Sktates 
di:itlnct from the South, more innocent ot 
slavery than England herself, becausQ they 
abolished servitude, and suppressed the slave- 
trade long before England would listen to the 
eloquence of Wilberforce; that when Eng- 
land assailed us on this painful subject, she 
should remember that she, herself, planteJ 
slavery in our Southern States, to extend her 
commerce and enrich her merchants ; that a 
portion of her overflowing wealth was drawn 
from the slave-trade, which gave the first im- 
pulse to her great seaport, Liverpool ; that the 
progress of liberal ideas, towards which Ame- 
rica had contributeil her share, had carried 
home the conviction to England, that the 
slave should be free, but the question was 



LEEDS. 



51 



how should ho be freed, who should contri- 
bute. The Southern Stvites, like the British 
West Indies, had paid in great part to Eng- 
lanil; the price of the shive, or of the stock 
from which he sprung, and now that the con- 
sideration has failed, now that her tide is 
pronounced defective hy the verdict of en- 
lightened humanity, if there is not, as in 
trade, a legal, is there no moral obligation to 
refund the price, to aid in removing the fet- 
ters slie had imposed ? And no matter what 
England had done in the West Intlies, and I 
would concede, she there acted justly, and 
even liberally, could she point her finger at 
the South until she had performed her duty ? 
With respect to repudiation. A denial of 
bond fide debts would never be countenanc- 
ed in America. Liabilities had been incurred 
under delusive promises. The tide of mis- 
fortune following the great fire of New York, 
sweeping over the country, and bearing down 
for the moment, the younger and more ad- 
venturous Slates, amid the wreck of compa- 
nies and banks, was fast subsiding. The 
stocks of the Union. New York, and Massa- 
chusetts, were already above par, and others 
on the advance, and the disposition to pay, 
was keeping pace with the inci easing ability.* 
With respect to commercial honor, it was 
not for Leeds to complain; her manufactur- 
ers had filled our markets with cloths, under 
false invoices, taken oaths our merchant.<< 
would not take, and, when discovered, ab- 
sconded, as would appear by the records of 
our courts ; and no honest man would sympa- 
thize in losses incurred in a course of dis- 
honesty, which was breaking down the fair 
dealer and manufacturer. 

On this, as on other occasions, when thus 
assailed, I trust I was serving the cause of 
humanity, when I asked, ' Has not America 
any just ground to complain of England? 
Does she not annually pour into our bosom 
her surplus population ? That emigrants are 
penniless we do not regard, for we have broad 
acres in our forests, and they havebrawny arms 
to till them ; but are they not devoid of edu- 
cation ? have they not grown up in ignorance, 
and often debasement '. and do they not come 
to us, too often, with the idea that wealth and 
intelligence are allied to depress them, and 
♦ See note C, Appendix. 



to exile them from their homes, and disposed 
lo enlist against both, on iheir arrival ? Are 
they qualified to appreciate or administer the 
govern tnent of which they virtually becoma 
members? and, should our institutions dete- 
riorate under their influence, could England 
feel that she had done her duty, either to U3, 
or to herself, in neglecting the education of 
her children ? ' 

An Englishman present, tells me his son 
is a clergyman in America, and takes part 
wiih me in the discussion. 

Leaving Leeds, I take the train of the 
Manchester and Leeds rail-way for Man- 
chester. The day is fine, and our train con- 
sists of two first class cars, three second class, 
and one third class, in the last of which, pas- 
sengers are taken at two cents per mile. Our 
passengers are six first class, eight second 
class, including myself, and about fifty third 
class, who stand up in a single pen on 
wheels, or rather are crowded in, like no 
many barrels of flour or cases of goods ; in 
fact, not treated with the respect and consid- 
eration with which we treat merchandise, for 
we shelter it from the weather as a matter of 
policy. The rail-way winds among the hill-» 
and has much curvature. The car in which 
I sit, has no cushions or windows, and swings 
so much as often to throw my umbrella and 
myself to the edge of the seat. One of my 
fellow-travellers, who, like myself, occupiea 
a seat for four, while so many are standing, 
asks me if the rail-ways of England are not 
superior to those of America. I cannot re- 
frain from telling him, that England is be- 
hind France, Belgium, and America, in all 
that relates to the comfort of the travelling 
public ; that althougli the lines of New Eng- 
land have higher gradients, less costly sta- 
tions, often single tracks, and a more difficult 
country, yet in speed they are equal, and in 
carriages far superior to the English ; that 
our carriages are larger, are inclosed, havo 
glass windows, conform to the curves, are 
lofty and well ventilated, and warmed by 
fires in winter, and move so easily, that in 
some of them letters have been written : that 
our policy is not to punish travellers for their 
poverty, or keep females for hours stand- 
ing, exposed to the weather, but to give them 
comfortable accommodations ; that, whatever 



82 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



may be our other failings, we treat the poor 
with decency and respect. 

Our route is through a populous region 
highly cultivated ; the rail-way a series of 
cuts, embankments, and timnels. We follow 
the valley of the Calder through a succes- 
sion of manufacturing towns. The valley 
gradually contracts, the sides become more 
and more precipitous, and exhibit occasional 
patches of wood, grass, flax, and pasturage ; 
the river, canal, and rail-way, are often paral- 
lel to each other, with ranges of houses be- 
tween them. The spurs of the hills are 
pierced by tunnels ; at lenjjth we enter the 
Summit Tunnel, nearly two miles long, and, 
crossing the backbone of England, emerge 
upon a striking scene. For ten miles hence, 
to Manchester, the whole face of the coun- 
try is studded with stone factories, with tall 
chimneys, rising often like towers or orna- 
mental pillars, and surrounded by clusters of 
dwellings, between which green fields occa- 
sionally intervene, all alive with population. 
Here is the secret of England's power and 
greatness ; here are the sinews of her strength. 
This vast fixed capital, this degraded, illite- 
rate, and depraved population sustain her ar- 
mies and her navies, and bear her flag in 
triumph through the world. How little does 
ebe do for those to whom she owes so much ! 

I reach Manchester, and take rooms at the 
Commercial House of Mrs. S., fronting on 
Piccadilly. Yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Leeds, September 18, 1843. 



LETTER XXVII. 

Manchester — Dr. Chaining — The Wesley 
ans — Religious Services — Dissolute Popu- 
lation — Cavses of Degradation — Vast Cap- 
ital — Improvements — Rail-way Station — 
2'he Parent Rail-way. 

The house at which T lodge in Manches- 
ter, is very unpretending in front, but the 
apartments are pleasant, and a large draw- 
ing-room in the rear opens by three long 
windows on a grass plyt, ornamented with 
6hrubs and flowers. It is Sunday, and I find 



a seat reserved for me at the dinner table, be- 
tween a lady and a very intelligent manu- 
facturer from Yorkshire. The guests are dis- 
cussing, with much animation, the merits of 
different clergymen, and I infer, from their 
remarks, that some are Presbyterians, some 
Wesleyans, and my neighbor from Yorkshire, 
an Unitarian. All are estranged from the 
Church of England. It seems to be general- 
ly considered that the Rev. Mr. Newton, a 
Wesleyan, is the most eloquent divine of the 
place. At first, I am taken for an English- 
man, but on making some allusion to my 
country, I am regarded with much interest, 
and my Unitarian neighbor inquires if I have 
ever seen Dr. Channing. And when I reply 
that I have, he draws from his pocket a work 
on ' the elevation of the working classes,' by 
our distinguished countryman, and expresses 
his admiration of the author. Thus do the 
works of genius survive their authors, and 
exert their influence abroad. 

In the evening I accompany two of the 
guests to a plain, but large meeting-house, 
and hear an excellent sermon by Mr. New- 
ton, addressed to an overflowing audience. 
The house resembles many in our inland 
towns, with the exception that the galleries 
are much larger. 

As we return, we notice many rude and 
dissolute women in the street, and my com- 
panions inform me, that a large proportion of 
the females of Manchester are degraded in 
their morals and habits. Congregated as 
they are in early life, in the mills, without 
any education, and with little or no prospect 
of a reputable connexion, associated with 
illiterate, and often intemperate men, without 
hope of bettering their condition, this state 
of things is not surprising. But are not those 
who contiol the government of Great Britain 
answerable for this moral evil ? Our own 
Lowell, where ten thousand operatives are 
assembled in one small town, and good mor- 
als prevail, is proof positive, that this evil is 
not inseparable from the manufacturing sys- 
tem ; neither can it spring from the rate of 
wages alone, for they are but little below the 
two dollars and seventy-five cents, or eleven 
shillings a week, which we pay to the girls 
who spin and weave in our factories at home ; 
and they accumulate, aimually, a large 



MANCHESTER. 



53 



amount. The evil lies fuitlier back ; it i.$ the 
gro.^is neglect of chil(lhoo<I. As respects edu- 
cation, England !.■' falling in the rear of the civ- 
ilized world. As a nation she does not appro- 
priate as much as Boston alone to instruction, 
for the latter annually expends one hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars on her schools. 
Great Britain, with two thirds of her subjects 
seceders from the ancient church, will not im- 
parl to them the rutliments of learning with- 
out steeping them in doctrines from which 
they are estranged. Let her look at Lowell, 
in the bosom of Massachusetts, in a State 
settled by the Puritanc, and see how the 
descendants of those Puritans treat their 
brother Christians. She will find there, a 
small body of Catholics, encircled by Pro- 
testants, and those Protestatits. out of respect 
for the opinions of a minority, selecting a 
due proportion of Catholic teachers ; and she 
will see there, schools thronged by pupils 
growing up in intelligence and virtue.* 

If the nobles, gentry, ami bishops are par- 
lies to this denial of light, to this assertion of 
the control of the few over the consciences 
of the many, let them look for the judgment 
of an enlightened world. If they dread rev- 
olutions, let them beware of ignorance and 
brute force, with nothing to lose, and every- 
thing to gain ; inflamed for the struggle, 
which may, ere long, overthrow all existing 
institutions. 

My companions inquire, with much inter- 
est, about the prospects of emigrants in Ame- 
rica ; they remark that trade has made no re-- 
turns for the last two years, and that they 
look to America as an opening for their child- 
ren. I give them a route to Iowa, on the up- 
per Mississippi, where they will find rich 
prairies, a virgin soil, a growing population, 
and a climate congenial to Englishmen. 

I sleep at Manchester ; and after devoting, 
as usual, an hour before breakfast to my pen, 
I engage a cab, at the fixed and moderate 
price of half a crown per hour, to convey me 
about the»tovvn. Here is embaiked a vast 
capital in manufactures. Here science and 
capital combined, compete successfully with 
the pauperised labor of China and hniia, 
sustained on rice, in climates which require 
little fire or clothing. 

* See note D, Appendix. 



The institutions of England favor the ac- 
cumulation of capital, and in this consists 
her power to subsidise or subdue. The ac- 
cumulated wealth builds her navies, her ca- 
nals, and rail-ways; constructs ships, steam- 
ers, and cities ; reclaims wastes and moras- 
ses. I am no advocate for entails or the pref- 
erence of the eldest son, but yet would ask, 
is not accumulation viewed in America with 
too much jealousy, and is not our power to 
improve curtailed by this jealousy, which, in 
its solicitude for the masses, discountenances 
trusts for the preservation of wealth, and pre- 
fers the waste of the prodigal heir to tha 
concentration of riches. And is not the pres- 
ent preeminence of Boston, its power to ex- 
pand, to build ships, factories, and rail-ways 
far beyond its own borders, in districts nat- 
urally richer, but comparatively poor, to bo 
ascribed, in part, to its system of trusts and 
accumulation ? , 

I ride to the manufactory of Mr. Thomas 
Banks, No. 57, Bengal street, and examine 
his improved tire for locomotives. His plaa 
is, to cut a groove two inches and a quarter 
wide at the surface, a little wider at the base, 
an<l half an inch deep around the rim of tha 
wheel, and insert in the groove a band, com- 
posed of several bars of steel, the upper sida 
of which is convex, and the lower concave. 
These bars are introduced at a white heat, and 
hammered until they fit the groove. Wheels 
thus fitted, have run a hundred thousand 
miles without any sensible deterioration. 

Mr. B. rides with me to the station of tha 
Manchester and Leeds Rail-way, where, in 
the absence of Captain Laws, he introduces 
me to the superintendent of the motive pow- 
er, who .'peaks in the highest terms of his in- 
vention. 

The passenaer station here, is from two to 
three hundred feet long, with two tracks, and 
a platform on either side for the passengers. 
The rail-way enters Manchester on arches, 
and the yard and warehouses for the freight, 
are, at least, twenty feet below the level of tha 
rail, and occupy ."several acres. The cars ara 
loaded in small buildings, or in the open air, 
pushed to a platform, and then elevated by 
steam, to the track, and the inward freight- 
cars lowered in the same manner to the level 



S4 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



below. The arches are converted into store- 
rooms. One contains iron of all sizes, pur- 
chased by the quantity ; another lanterns, 
lamps, oil-feeders, and similar articles; a 
third, a foundry for brass castings. Over all 
these a clerk presides, who charges each ar- 
ticle as delivered. 

We examine the extension rail-way. a 
very costly work, in progress, to carry the 
Manchester and Leeds line across the city 
on arches and pillars, to connect with the 
Liverpool and Manchester. This will, iloubt- 
less, be very conducive to the interests of both. 

In the course of the morning, my friend, 
Mr. C, rejoins me, and we take the train for 
Liverpool. The train does not leave until 
eight minutes after the appointed hour; it 
consists of one first and four second class 
cars, the latter unglazed. The passengers 
are, twelve first class, and forty-eight second 
class. The fare six shillings, and four shil- 
lings and sixpence for thirty miles, and there 
is no provision for the third class. The lat- 
ter, who are quite numerous, either go afoot, 
or by canal, and we are told it is not uncom- 
mon to see two hundred in a single boat. 
Thus are the masses denied the privilege of 
travelling by rail-wa}', in the hope of extract- 
ing from the few, what would be cheerfully 
paid by the many. But this error will, ere 
long, be corrected ; the public attention is 
now drawn to the fact, and public meetings 
liave been held. Great success has attended 
all liberal measures on the English lines, and 
tlie proprietors are gradually conforming to 
the lessons of experience and the dictates of 
public opinion. 

As we leave Manchester, we notice, for 
many miles, the towering chimneys of the 
manufacturing district taller than the spires 
of our churches, to obviate the nuisance of 
Emoke. The route is in excellent order, the 
elopes generally sodded, and often planted 
with shrubs ; young hetlges are springing up 
along the line, which will soon combine 
beauty with utility. 

We pass Chat Moss, an extensive Avaste, a 
portion of which is reclaimed and productive. 
A few miles beyond it we enter a deep cut 
through sand and clay, where the material 
continues to slide down, and might be easily 



and cheaply conveyed by the cars anil mo- 
tive power of the line to reclaim the morass. 
We enter Liverpool, and call on our friends, 
Messrs. Baring, Brothers, and Co., and take 
rooms with our former kind hostess, Mrs. B., 
No. 10, Colquitt street, and I remain, 
Yours ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Liverpool, England, September 18, lS43v 



LETTER XXVin. 

Works of Bury If Co. — Wages of Operatives 

— Engines, Steam Ships — Town Hall — 
Scotch Population — Influence of America 

— Tariffs — Farewell to England. 

Our companions at breakfast in Liverpool 
are New York and Boston gentlemen, either 
recently arrived, or about to return to Ameri- 
ca. After a pleasant conversation on the im- 
proving prospects of our country, we engage 
a carriage, and drive to the extensive works 
of Bury & Co., in the outskirts of Liver- 
pool. In the absence of Mr. Bury, his part- 
ner conducts us through the establishment. 
The firm employ from three hundred to nine 
hundred operatives,anumbervaryingwiththe 
press of business. The wages paid, are from 
twenty-six to thirty shillings per week, and 
the men labor but ten hours per day. The 
average rate of compensation is not far from 
eleven cents per hour for skilled labor, which 
is about the price paid in the interior of 
New England. 

Materials, however, are rather cheaper 
than with us. Castings, costing but five 
pounds and a half to seven pounds per ton, 
or one and one fourth to one and five eights 
cents per pound, while they cost two cents 
per pound in New England. 

We notice a large locomotive nearly fin- 
ished, with coupled wheels, one hundred 
brass tubes, ten feet by an inch and fwo thirds> 
cylinders fourteen inches, and weighing 
thirty thousand pounds, the price of wliicli is 
tv\-elve hundred and twenty pounds, being a 
little less than the price in America, of 
similar machines. 



BRITISH STEAM-SHIPS. 



55 



We notice, also, a direct action marine 
engine, the charge for whii-h is ihirty-si.v 
pounds per horse-power. An engine of this 
pattern, with boilers complete, and equal to 
four hundred and fifty horse-power, occupies 
a section of a ship of forty-three feet in length. 

The establishment appears well conducted, 
and is now in full activity. We drive hence 
to the Town Hall, a substantial structure 
of freestone, with a splendid suite of rooms 
for the officers of the town, and the recep- 
tion of strangers, and we look into the beau- 
tiful and extensive halls, appropriated for 
reading-rooms and underwriting, in one of 
which we notice a clock-dial, showing the 
course and changes of the winds. 

The Exchange is a hollow square, with a 
piazza around three sides of it, and resembles 
the Exchange of Antwerp. 

In company with a Scotch merchant, to 
whom I have letters, I visit the steamer Ad- 
miral, a vessel of 1000 tons, running as a reg- 
nlar packet between Liverpool and Glasgow. 

This fine ves.sel is neatly two hundred 
feet long, makes up one hundred berths, and 
accommodates one hundred steerage pas- 
sengers, besides carrying four hundred tons 
of measurement goods. Her engine is of 
three hundred horse-power, her model and 
speed excellent, her cabin and state-rooms 
admirably arranged and decorated. 

This steamer, like many others in the mer- 
chant service, is competent to cross the At- 
lantic, and able to contend with the severest 
storms of the ocean. In thi.s particular, we 
have much to learn of the English.* Every 
month adds to the steam marine of England. 
Lines of steamers are running to the Baltic, 
Hamburgh, Belgium, France, Spain, the Med- 
iterranean, between the Red Sea and India, 
to the United States and the West Indies, all 
of which, in time of war would be ready to 
pounce upon our commerce whitening eve- 
ry sea, and to which our navy would prove a 
most inadequate protection. Why is not our 
government more on the alert ? The invent- 
ors of steam-boats, and excelling all other 
nations in our river-steamers, we have the 
genius, the material, the men, and the re- 
sources, to provide a steam marine that shall 



* See note E, Appendix. 



command the respect of the world. And is 
a nation safe, that is not prepared for the con- 
tingencies of the future? In our shength 
lies the surest guaranty of peace. The 
hawk preys upon the dove, but not upon the 
eagle ; and the most perplexing question that 
can now be asked an American in Europe, 
is. how would we defend our commerce from 
those winged messengers of England. Let 
our government expend two millions a year, 
for a few years to come, on a .steam marine, 
and establish, like England, lines of packets 
to transport the mails, and in three years we 
may have a line of steamers from Boston to 
Havre, from New York to the Mediterranean, 
and thus by Suez to India, another from the 
Chesapeake to Saint Thomas and I'ernam- 
buco; another from Charleston totheHavan- 
nah, and others from New Orleans to Vera 
Cruz, and Chagres, and eventually from the 
Columbia to the Sandwich Islands and Cliina. 

Connect with this programme a postage of 
half a dime for all distances less than five 
hundred miles, ami a dime for greiiter dis- 
tances, and we shall, at once, accomplish 
three most important national objects. The 
expansion of commerce, protection from 
foreign foes, and facility of intercourse.* 

Were the policy of England pacific and 
friendly towards America, we might, perhaps, 
defer a little longer the creation of a steam 
marine, and apply our revenue, as it increas- 
es, to other objects; but it is very obvious, 
the predominant party in England is jealoua 
of America. They have not forgotten or for- 
given our successful revolt and rapid pro- 
gress ; our triumphs at sea ami at New Or- 
leans; they view with a jaundiced eye our 
rivalry in shipping and manufactories, and 
indulge in frequent outbreaks at the wonder- 
ful growth of our whale fisheries, while the 
British are decaying. 

The constant aim of their legislation seems 
to be, to give an indirect advantage to Brit- 
ish shipping, and to re.-;train our own : and 
there is reason to fear, the apprehension of 
losing ihs American market did more thaa 
a sincere love of peace, to prevent a rupture 
during our border difficulties. 

Could a sudden blow have been struck at 



* Sec note F, Appenilix. 



56 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



our shipping and seaports, without endanger- 
ing the manufactories of England, would it 
have been withheld ? 

But it may be asked, from what do I infer 
this danger? I infer it from the tone of con- 
versation, from the hostile tone of the press, 
and various incidents of my travels, one of 
which I will cite. 

An intelligent gentleman asks me at din- 
ner, if I imagine, for a moment, that Eng- 
land will relinquish to us the Columbia 
river ; and argues, that we have no title or 
reasonable pretensions to it. In reply, I press 
the strength of our claim on the ground of 
prior discovery, occupation, and cession ; that 
we regard it, and are settling it, as an integ- 
ral part of our territory. But the only argu- 
ment to which he will defer, is this. Suppose, 
I ask, that England has power to repress 
cur hardy backwoodsmen on the remote Pa- 
cific, and hem us in by the Rocky Moun- 
tains I What would be the result ? If we 
could not expand, sliould we not be driven 
to manufacture, and thus to a most danger- 
ous rivalry with England, and is not her true 
policy to invite us into the wilderness ? An 
appeal to the reason of England is. I regret 
to say, less effectual than an appeal to her 
interests or her fears. 

Until a change occurs in her tone and pol- 
icy, our motto should be, ' Let us be pre- 
pared for the worst.' 

Liverpool, in its rapid grow'h has, like 
our Anfierican cities, drawn in a large popu- 
lation from distant parts. It contains, at least, 
twenty thousand Scotchmen, and nearly as 
many Irish. But mark the difference ; Scot- 
land has provided schools for her children, 
and preserved them ; unfortunate Ireland is 
denied the privilege. The result has become 
a proverb, ' Sawney works with his head, 
while Pat works with his hands.' The 
Scotchmen of Liverpool, are nearly all well- 
established and prosperous, while the poor 
sons of Ireland toil in the docks, or bear the 
hod for a miserable subsistence. 

As we return to our lodgings to dine, we 
pass a large bay-window, within which are 
chairs, exhibited for sale. Among them we 
notice a painted rocking-chair, which looks 
like an old acquaintance. On entering, my 
friend, Mr. C, designates, by its shape, the 



town in Massachusetts in which it is made. 
The cost, in Worcester county, of such a 
chair, is less than two dollars ; the price here 
is two guineas. On inquiry, we find a 
great market might be opened here for the 
million of chairs, and thousands of tons of 
wooden-ware, which Massachusetts annually 
produces ; they would sell as fast as the 
wooden clocks of Connecticut, and pay an 
ample profit.* But while England clamors at 
our revenue duties on her worsteds, cottons, 
linen, cutlery, and cloths, she very modestly 
imposes a prohibitory duty of not far from 
one hundred per cent, on the coarser fabiics, 
with which, by the aid of our forests, water- 
falls, and ingenuity, we could greatly pro- 
mote the comfort of her poorer classes. She 
proclaims aloud her liberality in admitting 
our cheese, pork, and hams, at a duty of fifty 
to one hundred per cent, upon the prime cost 
on the Ohio, and in admitting our flour by 
the circuitous route of Canada, at a moderate 
duty; but does she meet us manfully ? If tar- 
iffs are to be modified, and treaties made, let ua 
have reciprocity and equality of privileges.f 

Is she, with all her capital — and claiming, 
as she docs, to be the queen of the seas, 
fearful to meet us in competition on the deep? 
She claims to have all the flour from our 
Western States run down the^ocky, icy, and 
stormy waters of the Saint Lawrence, to be 
water-borne in British bottoms, at an en- 
hanced price to England. Is this reciproci- 
ty or fair dealing ? And can she suppose we 
do not see through such artifices, and thin 
disguise ? And is she not aware, that this tor- 
tuous policy is defeating itself, since the en- 
hanced price prevents the consumption in 
England? 

But, thank heaven, this policy is of less 
consequence than it has been ; we are rapid- 
ly building up a home market, and manufac- 
tories at home. 

Let us glance for a moment at the course 
of England towards America. A few years 
since, we had a boundless credit on the Lon- 
don Stock Exchange. American bills, and 
American stocks, were as current as gold; 
goods were pressed in exchange for stocks 
and credit in vast quantities into America/ 
mushroom banks and mushroom houses were 
* See note G, Appendix. t See note H, Appendix. 



THE INDISCRETION OF ENGLISH BANKERS. 



57 



forced by British capital and credit to a 
hot-bed growth, and States newly created, 
whose capital was in forests, log-cabins, and 
backwoodsmen, were tempted by the facili- 
ty of credit to embark in works of improve- 
ment beyond the present wants of the com- 
munity. 

Amid the fever thus created and fanned 
by the great bank of Pennsylvania, and in- 
discreet rulers at home, a great fire suddenly 
annihilates thirty million dollars in New 
York ; — the specie is drawn from the 
country ; a panic follows, and the wise men 
of London, of a sudden, decide that nothing 
American shall be current. The /at is obey- 
ed. In a twinkling, a credit of one hundred 
million dollars more is extinguished ; mer- 
chants are required to send specie, who have 
none to send ; States, who require but one link 
more to get some return for their outlay, are 
utterly discredited, property rendered value- 
less, and, in the crash that follows, amid the 
wreck of banks, merchants, and States, all 
who falter, however honest may be their 
views, are branded with the names of cheats, 
swindlers, and knaves. 

In this state of things, the American tarifl' 
continues annually to fall by a descending 
BCiile; the British merchant, to sustain his 
home market, sends to New York all that is 
unsaleable in England, draws away the little 
specie that is left, and breaks down the 
home manufacturer. 

What is the result? The country is dis- 
heartened, and, for a moment discredited. A 
sudden fever seizes the patient in the flush 
of his manhood, but his constitution is not 
destroyed. 

The sagacious physician, prescribes fru- 
galit)-, temperance, caution, industry, self- 
reliance, and the homespun dress. Cash 
duties are adopted, which, while they create 
a revenue, check the excess from abroad, and 
wages and salaries are reduced. The ppin- 
dle, loom, hammer, saw, and plough are set 
in motion. The flour England will not take 
is consumed at home. The patient revives. 
The exports of the country increase. Gold 
and silver return. Interest, in the great 
cities, falls from eighteen to three per cent. 
The credit of the States, and the Union, rap- 



idly revive, and the United States stock, which 
was refused in England, at par, is going 
thither, at sixteen per cent, premium. 

Domestic produce rises, new factories are 
commenced on a firmer basis than the old, 
and new articles are manufactured. 

The country becomes equal to any emer- 
gency, and its honor will ere long be re- 
trieved ; and long may it be, ere it again 
places it in the power of another nation.* 

But let us glance at the other side of the 
water, and see what England has gained 
by her vacillating policy — encouraging her 
best customer to day, and then throwing 
him off, with dishonor, to-morrow. Mark 
the result. With the loss of American trade, 
came an excess of goods, a fall of prices, 
a terrible deficiency in the revenue. Divi- 
dends are lost, profits destroyed, operatives 
discharged and left to starve ; while the flour 
America offers for her debt is refused, furna- 
ces are blown out, rival manufacturers cre- 
ated, branches of trade annihilated, proper- 
ty depressed in value, the Bank of England '' 
calls on Paris and Hamburgh for money, 
and heavy income taxes are imposed, which 
barely save the country from bankruptcy. 
It is easy to trace a large proportion of this to 
the loss of American trade. A little more mod- 
eration at first, and a little more forbearance 
and liberal policy afterwards; for instance 
the opening of the corn trade, would have 
greatly mitigated if not prevented the evil. 

For the future, England must not expect 
to supplant the coarse manufactures of 
America ; she must content herself with 
selling the porcelain, stone-ware, worsteds, 
plaids, linens, silks, and fancy goods, we do 
not make and consume most when most 
prosperous, and such overplus of others, as 
the rising price in America may admit ; and 
be cautious that her denial of admission to our 
bread-stuffs does not deprive her even of 
these. With such caution it is fair to presume 
the demand from the United States, which 
even more than the opening of China is re- 
viving her commerce, may prove progressive. 

But I must return from my digression — the 
cabman is at the door. I hasten to refresh my- 
self with a warm bath, for which I pay the 
price of tliree in Boston, and seek the little 

* See note /, Appendix. 



58 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



eteam tender, which is to convey us, and 
our trunks, to the Acridia. 

We are now embarked, with fifty fellow 
passengers ; the tender returns for the mailsj 
and at five p. m. we weigh anchor, and run 
down the Mersey, with a wind and tide to 
the Channel, where we find a smooth sea 
and pleasant sky. We bid adieu to Eng- 
land, the land of our fathers -rare compound 
of wealth and misery, wonderful achieve- 
ments in science, and debasing ignorance, 
boundless charity, and equally boundless 
prejudices. 

I remain yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSKTTS. 

St. George's Channel, Sept. 17, 1843. 



LETTER XXrX. 

The Return Voyage — Ovr Company — The 
Endymion — American Authors in Ejigland 
— Western Farming — The Storm. 

The morning of Wednesdaj-, September 
20th, dawns upon us, as we run down the 
Channel in the fast steamer Acadia, with a 
smooth sea, and light breezes from the west- 
ward. At noon, we have made one hundred 
and fifty mile^. Letters from Paris have 
engaged one of the best innerstate-rooms for 
my friend Mr. C. and myself. Our party at 
table is composed of Americans and Enu:- 
lish, who are soon on easy and social terms. 
Among our fifty passengers we recognize 
three who accompanied us from America, 
and greet them as old acquaintances. As 
evening approaches, some indications of a 
storm appear, and the officers of the ship 
house yards and top-masts. 

Thursday, September 21. We lose sight 
of land, and are now on the broad deep ; the 
sky is overcast, and we meet a long swell 
with light breezes from the westward. The 
speeil of our steamer is eight and a half knots 
per hour. It is, however, but justice to these 
noble steamers, to remark that they do not 
attain their full speed until they are several 
days from port. 

Upon the commencement of their voyage 
they are deep with coal, and the wheels are 



buried in the sea. As they become lighter, 
the speed increases from two to three knots 
per hour. Beside this, the Acadia is deep 
^^'ith goods, her freight list amounting to 
five thousand dollars. 

During the day we observe many sails; 
in the evening the sea, broken by the wheels, 
is brilliant with phosphoric light; amid 
which is a beautiful show of porpoises, who 
for a long tin e run through the sparkling 
waters beside the ship, resembling 1he glit- 
tering serpents in an exhibition of fireworks. 

Friday. September 22. The swell has snb- 
.«ided, and a pleasant breeze from the north 
fills our sails and hurries us along at the rate 
of ten knots per hour. As the morning ad- 
vances, the breeze freshens and the sea rises. 
Soon after three p. m. a large .ship is seen in 
the distance, crossing our track. As we ap- 
proach, she clues up a sail, as a signal she 
requires our aid. The passengers cluster 
upon deck, the steamer diverges a little from 
her course, various surmises are made as to 
the wants or misfortunes of the stranger, the 
.steward is sent forward to break out the bis- 
cuit and provisions, and orders given to make 
ready to launch the boat. The dinner-bell 
rings, and is disregarded. As we slacken 
our speed, and run under the stern of the 
stranger, we read her name, the Endy- 
mion, of Hull. Our captain hails, and asks 
what is required ; the anxiously awaited re- 
ply is, merely. ' What is the longituile? ! ! ! ' 
We smile, as we descend to a cold dinner, 
at the modest assurance which stops the 
queen's mail steamer to compare longi- 
tude. A land bird, which has followed us 
from the shore, disappears as we pass the 
Endymion. , 

Saturday, September 23. The sea is 
rough through the night, and the ship rolls 
heavily. I rise, but find myself no longer a 
good sailor; and pay, reluctantly, the forfeit 
incurred by nearly all who cross the deep. 
1 determine, however, to retrieve my charac- 
ter as soon as may be, rise and walk the 
deck, and thus regain my spirits and appe- 
tite. 

Sunday. September 24. The wind favors 
our passage. We pass several ships running 
luidf'r close-reefed top-sails. At ten a. m. 
the Church Service is read by the captain. 



THE RETURN VOYAGE. 



99 



At one p. M. an army of porpoises spread 
over many acres of sea, inressaiitly spring- 
ing from tlie water, crosses our bow. 

Monday, September 25. The ^v^nd still 
favord us. At noon, thi.s day, we have run 
two hundred and thirty miles, and are more 
than half way to Halifax. In the evening our 
bi ight prospects of a fine passage are overcast. 
The winil shifts to the westward, and begins 
to blow heavily with rain, and we lose an 
hour while we key up the engine and house 
top-masts. During the evening our speed 
falls to seven knots per hour, and we court 
reading for amusement. Among the light 
literature in the steamer, we find three cheap 
English reprints of popular American works, 
each stamped a shilling. They are, ' Two 
Years before the Mast,' by R. H. Dana, and 
the ' Pirate ' and ' Captain Kyd.' by Ingra- 
ham. Thus our Eniilish friemls, while so- 
licitous for a copy-right in America, to pro- 
tect their authors, are giving great currency 
to our own in England, without much re- 
spect to their equitable, title to the profits. 
Perhaps the present stale of the law \^i]| 
have at least this good effect, it will make 
the two nations better acquainted, by circu- 
lating the authors of the one country in the 
other at prices below those of the home- 
made works. In one respect, however, 1 ob- 
serve Englanil goes a step beyontl America. 
When we republish Enidish vi'orks in Ameri- 
ca, we give the authorthe credit of his^produc- 
tion. This is not always the case abroad. 
A friend of mine, the Rev. Mr. Muzzey, who 
was in London at the same time with us, has 
recently publisheil a work styled the ' Young 
Maiden,' with great success, in America; 
indeed, with such success, that he has gone 
abroad to republish it in London ; but, on 
his arrival there, he finds the self-same vol- 
ume, republished and in the second edition, 
under the title of the ' Engli.sh Maiden,' 
vith a preface from an author who has as- 
sumed the work. A similar fate has befal- 
len the Greek Le.vicon of our friend, Mr. 
Pickering, and the beautiful Poem on Curi- 
osity, by Mr. Spragne. If nations cannot 
agree upon the question of right, the courts 
of honor should, at least, protect the laurels 
of the author. 

Tuesday, September 26. A head sea re- 



tards onr progress. The sky is clear, and 
the wind fresh from the west. The latter 
hears wilh it a weary land-bird, borne, proba- 
bly, from the coast of Newfoundland, six 
hundred miles distant, who flutters about thfl 
deck, and is caught by a passenger. Dur- 
ing the night the wind changes, and again 
favors our progress. 

Wednesday, September 27. We wake to 
enjoy a smooth sea, wilh a light breeze from 
the southward, and are now on the Flemish 
Cap, near the Banks. The rain falls through 
the allernooii, which drives me from my fa- 
vorite walk on the promenade-deck. 

Thursday, September 28. Crossing the 
Banks of Newfoinidland, the sea smooth 
and the sky unusually clear, I make many 
pleasant acquaintances among the passen* 
ger.**, and interchange words with all of them. 
Among them are two Baptist clergymen of 
Boston, intelligent men, who have made the 
tour of Europe, and have many singular in- 
cidents to relate. One of them, the Rev. Mr. 
N., has been imprisoned, on account of his 
religion, at Copenhagen, by the Lutherans in 
authority there. Before he was released, he 
was required to pledge himself not to preach* 
a sermon at Copenhagen. With New Eng- 
land sagacity, he inquired if this pledge 
would preclude him from talking reliij;ion. 
On bei;ig told that it would not, he felt at 
liberty, before he left, to make an extemporary 
address on religion to the persecuted Baptists, 
assuring them of the countenance and aid of 
their brethren in America. One of our com- 
panions has been a farmer in Ohio. He 
gives me a vivid description of the fertility 
and rapid growth of the country. One of his 
neighbors settled at Lancaster, Ohio, with 
his four boys, in 1820. He had no cipltal, 
and purchased a quarter section on credit. 
In eighteen years he was out of debt, and 
proprietor of eight hundred acres, well fenced 
and suitably divitled into wood tillage and 
pastura;:e. On thi.-* estate, without hiring 
labor, he cultivates annually one hundred 
acres in corn, eighty in wheat, twenty in 
oats, forty in grass for hay, and sells atnui- 
ally one thousand bushels of wheal, besides 
live stock. His property had become worth 
twenty-four thousand dollars. 

Friday, Sept. 29. We are passinj; the 



60 



TWO MONTHS ABROAD. 



Banks of Newfoundland ; the wind freshens 
to a gale from the westward, the steamer 
pitches in the head sea, and oocasionallv 
dips into a wave. During the evening, our 
little bird, whom we hoped to restore to land, 
droops and dies. 

Saturday, Sept. 30th. The morning opens 
clear and pleasant, and our speed exceeds 
ten knots per hour; we pass many fishermen, 
and find ourselves at noon in latitude forty- 
four, longitude fifty-nine, within two hun- 
dred miles of Halifax. In the course of 
conversation, an English gentleman com- 
plains to me, of the levelling and subversive 
spirit of democracy, to which he ascribes 
the neglect of Maryland and Pennsylvania, 
with their ample means, to provide for the 
payment of their interest. And there can be 
no doubt, that the failure of these compara- 
tively wealthy States, has done more than 
can well be conceived to lower our charac- 
ter abroad : many will pardon, to the weak- 
ness and poverty of the new States, what 
they hold inexcusable in Maryland and 
Pennsylvania. I urge, that a reasonable 
allowance should be made, even for them ; 
that they have been widely extended ; that 
their systems of public works have been 
suddenly arrested and left unfinished; that 
an unexpected contingency has arrived, 
which has taken them by surprise, and a 
little time should be allowed them to devise 
means to meet their embarrassments. That 
however ample may be their wealth, their 
Banks have failed, and they are just emerg- 
ing from a contraction' of the currency, 
more severe than would probably attend the 
failure of the Bank of England; that their 
wealth is fixed and immovable, and cannot 
in a moment be coined into gold. 

I urge, also, that Institutions which have 
done so much for the happiness of our people 
should not be hastily condemned. The peo- 
ple of Maryland and Pennsylvania, mu5^ not, 
and I trust will not forget, they hold in their 
hands the honor of the country. 

Sunday, October 1. A bright clear sky 
ushers in the day, the coast of Nova Scotia 
is visible, a light boat brings to us a pilot, 



and we run up the noble harbor of Halifax 
through a fleet of twelve or fifteen sail of 
coasters, outward bound, and at eight a. m. 
reach the Cunard wharf, and are again on 
terra firma. We walk over the ramparts of 
the unfinished citadel which covers a 
large area, and will eventually be a place 
of great strength ; we pass the post office, 
where we observe large mails for Montreal, 
Quebec, Toronto, Kingston, and St. Johns; 
and, as the bells ring, we resort to the Epis- 
copal church, and attend divine service. At 
half past one p. m., having replenished our 
coal, taken an American pilot, and exchang- 
ed twelve passengers for six, we run for 
Boston. Two sparrows follow us from the 
land, and at seven p. m. are flitting beside 
the steamer, as she rushes through the sea 
at the rate of twelve knots per hour. 

Monday, Oct. 2. Our progress is rapid 
through the night ; with the dawn, however, 
the wind shifts and blows a gale from the 
south ; the rain descends in torrents, the sea 
is in commotion, .and it is impossible to 
walk the deck : the waves are lashed into a 
foam, and more tumultuous than at any time 
during our passage. Our friend Captain 
Ryrie shows himself as able a seaman as he 
is a courteous and accomplished gentleman. 
At noon we have run two hundred and sixty- 
four nautical miles. At seven p. m. the sea 
subsides, the clouds break away, the stars 
and moon appear, presenting a lunar rain- 
bow, welcoming us to Massachusetts Bay, 
which we soon enter and make the distant 
lights of Cape Cod. As the clear blue sky 
appears, spangled with stars, seeming after 
the storm of even a darker blue than usual, 
I cannot forbear inviting my English friends 
from the cabin to look at an American sky. 
It is indeed a novelty to one from the cloud- 
girt isles of Great Britain. 

In a fevi' hours we receive the pilot and 
enter the harbor, and I am welcomed by 
my wife and children to the early breakfast 
which awaits my expected return, in thirteen 
days from Liverpool. 

Thus end ' Two Months abroad.' 
Yours, ever, 

MASSACHUSETTS. 



APPENDIX. 



NOTE A. 

In our country; the residents in towns and cities, 
particularly females, are less robust than in Eng- 
land. Using less exercise in the open air, tiie appe- 
tite often flags, the consiitulion becomes enfeebled, 
and a liability to colds, and often to consumption, 
follows. The importance of exposure to the air is 
illustrated by the ruddy lookstand robust frames of 
our stage-drivers. 



NOTE B. 

Fares on Rail-ways. 

Extremes are ever to be avoided. The opinion 
of the author has uniformly, for the last seven years, 
been in favor of an average rate of two cents per 
(passenger a) mile, as most productive, and is 
founded upon results derived from close observation 
and long experience. He has not advocated a 
lower rate except to meet direct or indirect com- 
petition. 

During the past year, the Western Rail-road 
has increased its through passengers sixty per 
cent, by reducing its rate from two and a lialf to 
two cents per mile ; and the Newton train has near- 
ly trebled its numbers by a still larger reduction. 

The printed Report of the Portland, Saco, and 
Portsmouth Rail-road, under date of December 12lh, 
1843, confirms this opinion, showing, as it does, that 
this Rail-road has earned three per cent, net during 
the six months ending November 30th last, derived 
principally from passengers carried at one cent per 
mile, against a most formidable steam-boat opposi- 



tion ; and also showing, that during the previous six 
months, while engrossing the whole travel between 
Boston and Maine, at four cents per passenger a 
mile, it earned but one-half of one per cent. 

Making due allowance for the season, the result 
drawn Irom rntes far below those advocated by the 
author, is irresistible evidence in favor of the mode- 
rate fare. The price should be such as to move the 
masses, and move them often ; to draw to the great 
cities, not merely the trader, but his family and cu.s- 
tomers, as is done by the steamers on the North 
River. 

In this country, the masse!) decide dividends as well 
as elections. 



NOTE C. 

The current pricies of the leading stocks of the 
United States and of the individual Slates, as this 
work is going to press, December. 1S43, are : 

United States six percent, stock, par $100, $116 



New York " 
South Carolina " 

Virginia " 

Maine " 

Kentucky " 

Ohio " 

Tennessee " 

Massachusetts five 

Alabama six 

Maryland " 

Pennsylvania " 

Illinois " 
Indiana 
Mississippi 



five 



$112 
$110 
$10!) 
$108 
$107 
$104 
$102 
$104 
$ <J0 
$ 72 
S 72 
$ 4.5 
$ 45 
$45 



62 



APPENDIX. 



Louisiana, Michigan, and Arkansas not quoted in 
the Nortl'.ern price current. 

Gforgia six per cent, about par, not quoted. 

Tlie specie in the Banks of Boston, New York, 
and Now- Orleans is now more than at any former 
period ; it exceeds twenty-five millions of dollars, 
and exceeds the circulation of the Banks. Interest 
in Boston and New York, on the best security, is 
but three per cent. 



NOTE D. 

Extracts from a recent Report of the School 
Committee of Lowell. 

' The Committee appointed October 16, 1S4.3, to 
report the arrangements which may liave been 
made by any former School Committee, in relation 
to the election of Catholic teachers in this city, and 
such other facts as may have any connexion with 
this s:ul>ject — report : 

' That in the first settlement of the town, owing 
to several causes, the Irish were collected and built 
their dwellings chiefly in one quarter, on a tract of 
land familiarly known to all by the name of the 
Acre. A large population was here gathered, desti- 
tute of nearly every means of moral and intellectual 
improvement, so generally enjoyed in New Eng- 
land. It was not to be expected that a community, 
thus .^i uate and neglected, so near the centre of a 
populous town, could be viewed without apprehen- 
sion. Accordingly, by the advice and efforts of phi- 
lanthropic individuals, a room was soon rented and 
supplied with fuel and other necessaries, and a 
teacher placed in this school, who was to be remu- 
nerated by a small weekly voluntary tax from the 
parents. From the poverty and iudiflljrence of the 
parents, however, the school very soon languished 
and became extinct. It was from time to time re- 
vived, but, after months of feebleness, again failed. 
Up to 1S30 the attempts to establish a school in this 
neighborhood were sustained by individual benevo- 
lence chiefly. At the annual town meeting in May, 
IbSO, an article was inserted in the warrant for the 
appointment of a Committee, to consider the expe- 
diency of establishing a separate school for tlie ben- 
efit of the Irish pojiulation. A Committee were 
chosen by the town, who made a Report iii April, 
1831, in favor of such a .school. This report was 
accepted, and, as t e schools were at this time Car- 
ried oil iu distiicts, tie sum of fifty dollars was 
appropriated for tln-i establishment and maintenance 
of a sepa ate dist ict s houl for the Irish. Here was 
the first muiiicijial regnhition rjkiting to this matter, 

' All the arrangements hitherto seem to have been 
very unsatisfactory ; for, in the year 1S34, Rev. Mr. 



Conolly appears to have been conducting a private 
school under the Catholic church. This was the 
position of affairs up to .lune, 183-5, when this gen- 
tleman made application to the school committee for 
aid, and was present at several of their meetings. 
After considerable deliberation, an arrangement was 
about this time entered into, which was perfectly 
defined and well understood on each side. It is 
thus detailed in the annual report of the school 
committee of the year ending March, 183G : 

'" It is known to the citizens generally, that vari- 
ous fruitless attempts have been heretofore made to 
extend the benefit of our pui)lic schools more fully 
to the children of our Irish population. These at- 
tempts have been hitherto frustrated chiefly perhaps 
by a natural apprehension, on the part of parents 
and pastors, of placing their children under Protest- 
ant teachers, and in a measure, also, by the mutual 
prejudices and consequent disagreements among- 
the Protestant and Catholic children themselves. 
Your committee have great pleasure in stating, thai 
these difficulties appear to have been overcome, and 
the above most desirable object to have been finally 
accomplished. As early as the month of June last, 
the Rev. Mr. Conolly, of the Catholic church, ap- 
plied to the committee for such aid as they might be 
able to give to his exertions for the education and 
improvement of the children under his charge. The 
committee entered readily and fully into his views; 
and in this, and several subsequent interviews, a 
plan for establishing one or more separate schools 
for this purpose was matured, and has since been 
put into successful operation. On the part of the 
committee the following conditions were insisted on 
as indispensable, before any appropriations could be 
made of the public money : — 1st. That the instruct- 
ors must be examined as to their qualifications by 
the committee, and receive their appointment from 
them. 2d. That the books, exercises, and studies 
should be all prescribed and regulated by the com- 
mittee, and that none other whatever should be 
taught or allowed. 3d. That the schools should be 
placed, as respects the examination, inspection, and 
general supervision of the committee, on precise- 
ly the same ground as the other schools of the 
town. 

'" On the part of Mr. Conolly, it was urged, that, 
to facilitate his efforts, and to render the scheme 
acceptable to his parishioners, the instructors must 
be of the Roman Catholic faith, and that the books 
prescribed should contain no statements of facts 
not admitted by that faith, nor any remarks reflect- 
ing injuriously upon their system of belief. These 
conditions were assented to by the committee as 
reasonable and proper; and the books in use in our 
other schools were submitted to his inspection, and 
were by him fully approved. On these principles, 
ihree schools have been established within the past 
year ; two under the Catholic Church, in June, and 



APPENDIX. 



63 



one in the vicinity of Cluii)el Hill, in Seplemljer 
lost. 

* " These schools have now I>een in operation more 
Ihan half a year, and your committee have the sat- 
isfaction of believinj,'- them to have been eminently 
successful, and that they are doing much good to 
this hitherto neglected portion of the community 
Four hundred and sixty-nine children liave during 
the year been taught, under the influence of these 
public schools. The average number attached to 
these schools has been two hundred and eighty- 
two ; of which number, the average daily attend- 
ance lias been two hundred and eight; showin" a 
punctuality and regularity of attendance fully equal 
to tiiat of our other schools. 

' " The committee think the advantages of this ar- 
rangement must have been obvious to every obser- 
ver, in the improved condition of our streets; in their 
freedom from noisy, quarrelsome, truant-boys; and 
it is confidently hoped they will soon be equally ob- 
vious in the improved condition and respeciability of 
the children, and in their redemption from intel- 
lectual and moral degradation." 

' Under the above arrangement, the committee 
proceeded, June Mth, to assume the supervision. At 
the present time, we have one grammar school, and 
five primary schools,'composed e.Kclusively of Irish 
children. According to the tables of last year's re- 
port, the average number belonging to these schools 
vas six Iiiuidred and seventy-one, and the avera"-e 
daily attendance five hundred and sixty-si:c. At 
the regular quarterly examination in the last week 
in June last, there were present in these schools 
five hundred and forty-five pupils ; and, without "-o 
ing into any details, we may say that at no former 
period had they ap,ieared better, and the committee 
were satisfied with each of the instructors connect- 
ed with them.' 



NOTE E. 

The Government of the United States have this 
year either begun or finished seven steamers ; and 
public opinion imperatively demands additional ap- 
propriations for a steam marine. 



NOTE F. 

1 Reduced Postage. 

Mr. WicKLiFFE, in his recent Report to Con- 
gress observes, that the British Government, in re- 
ducing its postage from an average rate ol' about 



sixteen cents, to two cents per letter, or eighty per 
cent, reduced its revenue twenty-five per cent, or 
from $ 1 1 ,200,000 to S S, 100,000. 

It would be very unsafe to infer from this, that if 
the average rate had been reduced from sixteen 
cents to eight, it would not have increased the rev- 
enue. There is no occasion for us to go to such 
extremes. An average postage of eight or ten 
cents would multiply letters, |)ut down the convey- 
ance by express, and turn all channels into the 
mails. There can be no reasonable doubt it would 
dijuble the number of paying letters, and thus in- 
crease the revenue. 

Ill England the increase has been nearly three- 
fold. Even were a slight deficit probable, the ex- 
periment deserves to be tried, for it would promote 
commerce and social intercourse. 

The rates which promise best, would probably be 
Five cents for all distances less than 2-'j0 miles. 
Ten cents do. over 2-50 miles and less than 500 miles. 
Fifteen cents do. over TjOO do. and less than 7.30 do. 
Twenty cents do. over 7.J0 do. and less than 1000 do. 

At such rates, no express between our great 
cities would be encouraged ; and it is siippo.-ied by 
many that the mail does not cany one third of the 
lettiTS now passing between them. 

In justice to the British Government it should be 
observed, that the immense reduction in England 
benefits the Government indirectly, by promoting 
the use of pajier and circulating newspapers, now 
carried free of postage, both of which pay an excise. 

The Government, also, did not e.Kpecl an imme- 
diate increase of letters to fivefold, but expected a 
gradual change, which is now progressing. 



NOTE G. 

The wooden wate annually made in Northern 
Massachusetts, including one million of chairs, and 
vast quantities of tables, bedsteads, tubs, pails, pi- 
anos, bureaus, brooms, l)rushes, and other articles. 
is estimated to exceed fifteen thousand tons. Ships 
sailing from Boston for the Southern ports, the 
West Indies, and South America, often take wood- 
en ware between decks, and fill the liold with ice, 
of which article, forty thousand tons are annually 
exported from Boston. 



NOTE IT. 
English Reciprocity, 
E\GLA.ND charging one hundred per cent, duty 



64 



APPENDIX. 



on Chinese teas, and requiring of China a duty of 
only sixpence a yard on English broadcloth ! 

England charging both specific and ad valo- 
rem duties, amounting in the aggregate to one hun- 
dred per cent, on wooden ware, one thousand per 
cent, on tobacco, and virtually prohibiting American 
flour, lumber, fish, and other staples, and meanwhile 
complaining and protesting against revenue duties 
levied on British manufactures, which compete 
with our own. 

The duty on this book in England exceeds the 
cost of the work as it comes from the press in 
Boston. 



NOTE /. 

The revenue of the Union, from the omission of 
Congress to put a duty on tea and coflee, was defi- 
cient for the year ending July 1st. 1843, about four 
millions of dollars A duty of eight cents per pound 
on tea, and two cents per pound on coflee, will, by 
careful, estimate, produce the four millions of dol- 
lars, and the revenue otherwise is progressive. 

The proposed duty on tea and coflee wonld 
dou!)tless fill, in great part, on the producers of the 
articles, and is about one sixth the rate charged in 
England on the same commodities. 



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